Be humble. Be teachable. Accept that you don’t know everything there is to know about anything – and that’s okay. Stay hungry. Stay curious.
Be humble. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when needed. It is not a sign of weakness – it is a sign of a willingness to grow, an acknowledgement that we are not self-sufficient islands but were made to depend on each other.
Be humble. Pull up people on laziness and call them into excellence, but also understand that most people are doing the best they can with the resources that they have. Have the wisdom to discern the two. Remember that everybody has their own story behind where they are at the moment, and everybody had to start somewhere. That includes you.
Be humble. Your success may largely have been the product of which family, or which country or which era you were born into; or it may be a result of all your blood, sweat and tears. Whichever way you have made it, not everyone has the same opportunities or need to follow the same path.
Be humble. You may have the right opinion, hold the right titles, believe in the right God, be of the right skin colour, support the right football team, but it does not give you the right to impose that on anyone. Be mindful of your conversations – they are dialogues to be had, not debates to be won.
Be humble. Stand outside one time on a clear, dark night and look at the sea of stars, and remember how tiny we really are in the whole scheme of things. Remember that the things that you hold on so proudly and dearly to – your health, your abilities, your wealth, your relationships – can all change in the blink of of an eye.
Avoid false humility. Be quietly confident of who you are, and what you are able to do, and remember that you are loved and worthy of a good love. Humility does not equal spinelessness or timidness or the lie that who you are and what you do is not worth celebrating.
Avoid arrogance. Arrogance – the disdain for your fellow human beings in order to feel better about yourself, is reflective of deeper issues of dissatisfaction with yourself and a poor substitute for confidence.
The Malays have a proverb ‘Ikut resam padi – makin berisi, makin tunduk’ which translates into ‘Imitate the rice plant – the more substance it contains, the lower it stoops.’ And so should you stoop to conquer, to win people over. The people who can wrap their staggering achievements and amazing talents confidently in a package of unassuming humility are some of the most attractive people you will ever meet.
They once said that you should judge your date by the way they treat the waiter. I believe that’s true. Eat with kings and peasants and talk to both the same. Remain humble.