THE GREATER QUESTION

I am amused with this news reported by The Star today. Click. The news covered on the story of our very own child prodigy, Adi Putra Abdul Ghani, 10 years old who are now making his way to become a millionaire. By the age of 10, he is already a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of 2 companies and earning RM6,000 per hour of lecture.

Stories of child prodigies are no shocking incidents at all. Even before this, Malaysia (partly because her mum is a Malaysian) was blessed to have a brilliant child named Sufiah Yusof who once entered St. Hilda's College, Oxford Univ. at the age of 13 due to her deep fascination in Mathematics.

"What did you do when you are 10?"

Apart from that, there are also stories of other genius kids all around the world such as:

1. Arkit Jaswal, who read Shakespeare at the age of 5 while performing a surgery at the age of 7 and became India's youngest undergrad student to attend Punjab Univ. by 11 years old.

2. Song yoo-Geun, who performed Schrodinger equation and enrolled at Inha Univ. Korea by the age of 8!

3. Mohammad Hossein Tabatabai, who is able to recite and interpret the entire Koran at the age of 7!

4. Or consider Tiger Woods who began to play golf at the age of 2!

5. And of course, the now higly-praised teen star Miley Cyrus who in 2008, was listed in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World. Forbes magazine ranked her 35 on the "Celebrity 100" list with earnings of $25 million.

While there maybe child prodigies around, let us also be reminded of those children who are less fortunate, underfed, massacred and side-lined in some other places due to terrorism, war disputes, famine and other disasters alike.

Most of us may be dragged into a conclusion that, we are less fortunate, less smart and exceptionally ordinary compared to these prodigies but remember, there's bottom millions worse.

You see, there are people who enslaved themselves dedicating ripe old 30 years of age working as a bread-winner for the family, yet in the end, dying in debts on hands while others (celebrity such as Miley Cyrus) simply hit their millions before the age of 20! Come to think of it, life seems to be unfair, don't you agree?

This brings us into seductive deductions of:

Premise 1: Miley Cyrus is rich.
Premise 2: To be rich is successful.
Conclusion: Should we become like Miley Cyrus?

Premise 3: Adi Putra is a genius.
Premise 4: Being genius is successful.
Conclusion: Should we become like Adi Putra?

I may not know what you folks there are thinking but to me, no matter what is the definition of success is, I'm still me! I guess, you should be YOU too. As for me, when I was 10, the only thing I can recall is the part when I was gallantly enjoying my vanilla ice-cream watching the then infamous cartoon Scooby-Doo.

Master Oogway in Kung Fu Panda summarized it all when he said "Yesterday was history, tomorrow's a mystery but today's a GIFT! That's why it's called the PRESENT!"

Since we cannot change nor reverse the past and that somehow we can influence the future, the greater question that needs crucial attention is "what will you become 10 years from now?" And that starts with YOU, NOW!

Till the next posting.