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    September 08

    2009 OOCL English Contest -- Semifinal‏

     

    I’m grateful to be here with so many friends in OOCL. I am also pleased that so many of you are present even via InfoNet. It was my great honor that I could win the favor of all three judges in the first round. I should say thank you very much.

     

    One senior manager said last time: if you are able to stand here, you are the winner. For me, winning and losing is actually not that important. I’m coming here just for participation, but such saying definitely impressed me a lot and urged me to think about the relationship between win and lose. Now welcome to the inside of my brain and let’s have a journey of discovery.

    When thinking about win and lose, apparently we would have a sudden image like Thomas Edison who wouldn’t succeed in the end without thousands of failure.” The saying “where there is a will, there is a way" has been leading us walk up to win from loss. On the opposite even the wise are not always free from error. A vivid picture draws us back to the 19th century, the great Napoleon who always won but lost completely in Waterloo.

    Are there any further relationships between win and lose? I am considering that win is sometimes equal to lose. Or we could say in certain degree, win is lose and lose is win. Now let’s see how it goes.

    6 years ago, the army and navy that mainly from the United States launched a series of attacks on Iraq. We know that United States finally won the war, but is it a real win? I hardly think so. First and foremost, large numbers of innocent lives were killed and more than 60 billion dollars were cost. Second, the multinational force did not tackle the ever-expanding problem of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) possession.  Last but certainly not least, the US not only received much sarcasm from people on their own side but also ruined their own international reputation.  That serves as a typically example of “win is lose”.

    How about lose is win? Pls allow me to trace the time back to May 12th, 2008. It was disaster upon disaster in Sichuan Province. Thousands of people died, millions of people injured, and billion dollars of property was lost. But look at the other side, “Hold my hand, and stay with me!” People encouraged each other, helped each other. Every minute, every second, we were racing against time.

    “Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all fear, victory no matter how long and how hard the road would be; for without victory there is no survival”

    Indeed the catastrophe brought a great loss to us. However, as a citizen, we won the confidence of being a Chinese, as a country, we won persistent support from our people and also, we won the admiration from all over the world, and as the world, we are delighted that in the east part of this planet, a Great Ancient Civilization finally achieved an unprecedented win throughout the whole history of the human beings.

    Now here comes another assumption.  " Where there is a 'lose' there is a 'win'  "

    I can see in some sense, we will be more whole in personality when we are losing something. The man who has everything or always wins is in some ways a poor man, for he will never know what it feels like to desire, to hope, to nourish his soul with the dream of something better.

    For me, I will not allow yesterday’s win deceive me into today’s self-satisfaction; for this is the great foundation of lose. Meantime, I will persist with the knowledge that each lose will increase my chance for winning at the next attempt. I will erase the loss by forgiveness and start again with the spirit of win-win.

    In conclusion, there’s no win but only persistence, while there’s no lose, but only lessons.

    Thank you.