He Befriends Gangsters…

He Befriends Gangsters…

A friend – let’s call him Luke (not the real name) – that I have not met for more than 30 years dropped by my office.

We had a wonderful time reminiscing about the past over a wonderful dinner.

Except for some wrinkles, Luke’s face has hardly changed over the years.

I once joked over the Facebook group that put us together again – Luke still has the Chow Yun Fatt’s style, minus the height.

We spent one part of the evening talking about how Luke got involved with gangsters.

No, he was not one of them but he seemed to interact often with them.

According to Luke, his first major encounter with them was when they tried to collect “protection money” from him.

It happened shortly after opening the door of a new retail business.

Instead of running away or cowing to them, he took great effort to engage them.

He eventually found a way to resolve the harassment.

Since then, Luke tried to understand them with a view of trying to help them.

He recalled how he once sat through a long meeting listening to a gangster sharing his life story.

My entrepreneurial friend offered them jobs and even started a business for them.

He invited them to church and in his words, he was prepared to go with them to any church that they are comfortable with.

Over a period of time, Luke won their confidence and even managed to transform some of them.

I have utmost respect for Luke and admiration for what he was trying to do.

Instead of passing judgements on the gangsters, he defended them on our Facebook group and in different ways.

The lessons I learned from Mark was that I should never run away from trouble or be compromised by the trouble.

There are always solutions within reach from both around and within me.

When I found out how Luke took a contrarian approach in bringing out the good in every gangster, I re-learned another useful principle.

Expect the best from people so as to bring out the best from them.

If complaining, criticizing and condemning can change lives, the world would have been a better place.

There will be lesser of the bad and ugly living amongst us.

Our words can become rivers of life – rejuvenating, inspiring and energizing the people that we meet every day.

If all of us reach out and try to resolve the problems in our community; instead of just passing negative judgements about them, the world will become a better home.

When we run away from problems, we have also unwittingly allow those problems to grow.

Eventually they will bring more problems to our lives.

Thank you Luke for an enlightening time.

Go4It!

I hope this message will find a place in your heart.

By the way, I have also recorded other reflections.

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