Two wings of genuine success

In order to identify ‘genuine success’, we must consider the reason for the existence of human beings and countries.

I have spent some time in Pakistan now and witnessed the subtle and significant changes in the seasons, scenery and society. I have enjoyed the rich cultural heritage and warm hospitality that Pakistan is famous for and had an opportunity to visit many places of the country. Being grateful for the experience to learn so much from Pakistan, I thought it would only be fair to share with you, the youth of Pakistan, some wisdom from Korea.

The founder of the first Korean Kingdom gave the Koreans his founding philosophy, ‘Hongik ingan’, which means ‘Live and Work for the Benefit of All Mankind’. This philosophy is ingrained into each Korean from an early age and reinforced through time. The concept of working for the benefit of mankind instils a sense of purpose, a mission geared towards greatness and an honourable objective. It is this concept which binds Korea together as a community, which works for its collective welfare.

Of course, Korea is not alone in championing the cause of charity and communal welfare. Pakistanis are well known for donating to charities. Abdul Sattar Edhi is just one example of a Pakistani philanthropist, who has dedicated his life towards helping his people. However, it is essential that the lessons of Edhi’s nobility be cemented as a comprehensive philosophy and instilled in every citizen through an institutionalised process.

As a professor in Korea, based on my life experience, I used to teach my students that the life of most humans is an unsatisfactory ‘common life’ with four stages. The first is the preparation stage, which starts at birth and includes your schooling, examinations, job preparation, etc. The second stage is that of a young worker. It includes getting employment, getting promoted and getting married. In the third stage, humans need to buy a house, pay children’s tuition fees, their marriage expenses and save towards a nest egg. The fourth and last stage is from retirement till death. Usually, by this time, people have little economic value. They lose their health and are not confident. Some people become dependent on the support of their children or other people, if they have not been able to save during their lifetimes. Additionally, medical advances have lengthened the fourth stage by two to three decades; sadly, even though most retirees are able to work, few have productive jobs.

I refer to these four stages of life as the ‘common life’. This ‘common life’, especially the last stage, does not give satisfaction, is undesirable and we should seek to avoid it. Instead, we should seek a ‘genuinely successful life’. In order to identify ‘genuine success’, we must consider the raison d’etre or reason for the existence of human beings, communities and countries. In my view, humans exist to live up to the ideals of humanity, i.e., to help one another.

Even a snake looks after its family, so merely living a ‘common life’ or just looking after family should not be the ultimate objective. Helping others, our community, our country and the world is the real way of proving our humanity. We need two wings to fly. Similarly, we need two wings to live a ‘genuinely successful life’. Having expertise in your chosen field is the first wing and having enough resources and money to help many is the second wing. Expertise may be in the form of experience, knowledge and skills, which we can pass on to others. We must aim to be amongst the best in our chosen field.

Vast resources are needed for helping others. To acquire these, we must train ourselves to make and save money, as I see some people learning from the books, quotes and examples of people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. We must develop our personality by adopting constructive habits and discarding useless ones.

Together, expertise and wealth can be utilised to help others, at the individual, national and world levels. My good friend Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, recognised Pakistan’s record contributions to global peacekeeping missions. Korea helps in its own way, through funding and bilateral projects. It is my hope that in the near future, Pakistan and Korea, and Pakistanis and Koreans, can have greater levels of cooperation in all fields, especially in the uplift of humanity.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th,  2014.

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