Part 1: How we use what we are given

For all my childhood and most part of my teenage years, my parents run their own business - a radio and TV station in a small town in the middle of nowhere in Brazil. I have many memories from that time, and I'd like to share two of them. 

The first one was the end of a month: my parents were always extremely stressed at the end of a month, because that was the time they would have to pay their employees. And they always made sure to pay everyone on time, regardless of how that would affect their personal finances and our life at home. I remember the end of the month being the tightest part for us, which is usually the other way around when you work for someone else. But my parents always said that they had many people that depended on them, and they could not let those people down. 

The other memory was at Christmas: every year they made a campaign asking those in need to send the station letters with what they wanted for Christmas, and those who had enough to adopt one of those letters. They would also chase other businesses to help acquire donations. And then, around Christmas day, they would use my uncle's truck to take those things to the people who asked for them. They always told us that we had to do this first, in order to receive our gifts. They made sure we understood that other people lived in worse conditions, and we should never take the life we had for granted.

Nowadays my dad is retired, and my mom still works. They are not rich, they can live with what they have, but they still pay rent. But they continue to do it, they way they can: they went to the post office and adopted a letter from someone in need, and made sure to get that person what that person needed. 

They also did other things throughout their lives to support others, but if I would tell you all, we would stay here forever. I chose these examples to illustrate where my sense of helping others came from. And I see it happening less and less in today's world. People are becoming more divided, more selfish, more bellicose. They see other humans as enemies, as someone who needs to be defeated. More and more, they need to win, to be better, to have more. Altruism and selflessness is becoming démodé.

I have a platform, something that was given to me, where I can reach thousands of people, and I try to use this platform to make the world a better place. I could use it for personal profit, and some people do that legitimately as a business, nothing wrong with that - or them. But I think everyone has a chance to also do something good to the world. One thing does not cancel the other. You can make profit but also make the world a better place. It needs effort, it needs hard times. Nothing in this life is free. It might not get praise, likes, financial return, but it might make a difference in someone's life.

My parents are not perfect - they made many mistakes and wrong decision in their lives. But now, when they are entering their golden years, they can look back and be at peace. They are not rich, they are not famous, they did not cure any disease. But they lived their lives with dignity and they made the world better. Maybe just a little, for a handful of people, but if more people would be like them, these small punctual actions would amount to something larger. 

We are all given a life in this planet, and we will all die at the end. What you do with this life, how we use it, this is what matters. It's all about the journey.