What Should I Do with My Life?

Yesterday, I read SBY’s essay on the topic of Heroes, the title is: The Making of a Hero.

Anyway, after reading that essay, I was wondering about the real heroes, the people that SBY mentioned in his essay, but after a while I forgot about it.

This morning, I suddenly remembered that I have this book that tells people’s stories on how they answer the ultimate question “what should I do with my life?” (Which is also the title of the book), I remembered that in one of the chapter of this book, there’s an amazing story about someone that might be called a hero (at least by some people).

The next thing I did was of course, trying to get that book and re-read the story, because I remember that beside the obvious thing that this guy is a hero, this guy also got some great comments/answers about how he actually chose to follow the hero way; he’s a Yale University graduate, who sacrifices the possibility of having a great job with a great salary like his old schoolmates and instead is willing to work with a very low salary, just because of one reason: “chasing greatness.”

Here’s the story:

So, this hero name is Chang Chi, he works at one of the most successful public charter school in the US, the Academy of Pacific Rim (don’t be fool by the adjective “most successful, because they don’t measure it in term of profit). Before I talk further about this amazing guy, I think I should share more about this creative school which achieves tremendous success:

• The entrance has no requirements.
• Its students come from low/middle class (most are African American).
• When the student came to the school many can’t read or write and1/3 of them will repeat the 1^st year - by the 3^rd year only 1/10 have to repeat.
• By the end of high school, they will be top student applying to the Ivy League (top universities).

So, what they’re doing is really getting this kids who have problems with public school, teach them and sending them to really good colleges. – “In education, this is the true measure of success.”

The school was founded about 7-8 years ago by a Harvard Business School grad who was interested in education reform; he took a trip to Japan and adapted some education techniques. There are so many interesting facts about the school; for example: where usual public school value 4.0 GPA more than anything else, this school’ highest honor is not that, “it’s to receive the gambatte (Japanese for: fight till the end) award for exhibiting character: act of generosity, resisting peer-pressure or for avoiding fight.”

Most of the teachers (including our guy: Chi) works from 8 in the morning until 9 at night (yes, 13 hours) everyday, and is often in Saturday (and yes, with a very low salary); Moreover, many of these heroes are actually top universities graduates (you know, school like: Harvard, UC Berkley, Yale, …), if they wanted, they could easily find a much much better jobs.

However, not every one of them has to struggle as much as Chi. Chi as a Chinese son, believe the tradition about respecting elders, especially his dad. His dad who still believe that wealth is the main measure of success and happiness, once sent Chi to Yale, within a hope that Chi would get a respectful job with high salary, not 5$/hr kind of salary. His dad was surely very upset about Chi’s decision to join APR, and of course Chi must have felt very bad about it too.

Still, Chi did not give up. He believed in what he was doing. Below you can see the strength of his very own words that might inspire many:

“Call me romantic, but deep down I want to be great. I want to believe in a cause or an idea bigger than my individual financial or career progress. Deep down, that’s why I can’t get myself to look seriously at law or business school applications. Tell me, is there really anything, anything at all ‘great’ about working for a firm or corporation? And so here I am, chasing greatness.”

Of course, not everyone would agree with him. Of course, not everyone value him as a hero, but at least this mom from a low income family does, because once in a supermarket she “pulled [Chi] aside and in the most heart-felt way imaginable, asked [him]- practically begged [him] not to leave the school until her two middle school daughters graduated from high-school.” In responding to this occasion, Chi later said to the author of the book, “eat your heart out, MasterCard - those five minutes of gratitude were as priceless as it gets. A teacher you say? Nah, call me the luckiest guy on earth.”

Yup, this is Chi.

Chi: “In Chinese families, we are raised to respect our elders”

Author: “Respect or behave?”

Chi: “Respect their wisdom about how to live”

Author: “So, you feel a ton of guilt, huh?”

Chi: “Yeah”

Author: “Do you think about going off to make money?”

Chi: “Never, I love what I do…”

No matter what people think of him ..... for me, he's a hero.