Sabang-Merauke

Di penjuru nusantara Indonesia, kota Merauke lah yang paling pertama melihat matahari terbit setiap hari. Mengapa begitu? Karena posisi kota Merauke yang berada di wilayah paling Timur dalam wilayah negara kesatuan Republik Indonesia. Pada saat sore, ketika matahari terbenam, kota Sabang yang terletak di bagian paling barat, akan melihat matahari terbenam paling akhir.

Dalam upacara detik-detik proklamasi tahun 2011 ini, Bendera Pusaka dinaikkan oleh tim Sabang, sementara penurunan Bendera Pusaka dilakukan oleh tim Merauke. Semoga kesalahkaprahan membaca peta dari kiri ke kanan ini tidak menutupi semangat penting: Bahwa Bendera Pusaka harus berkibar selama mungkin, seperti matahari yang terlihat selama mungkin, dilihat dari mulai terbitnya di kota Merauke, hingga terbenamnya di kota Sabang.

Semoga kesalahkaprahan berpikir di negeri ini nggak menutupi semangat untuk jadi bangsa yang memerdekakan jiwanya. Termasuk merdeka dari pikiran korup.

About Time to Excel in Life

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the musical genius, once wrote to his friend,

“People err who think my art comes easily to me. I assure you, dear friend, nobody has devoted so much time and thought to composition as I. There is not a famous master whose music I have not industriously studied through many times.”

By the time he was twenty-eight years old, his hands were deformed badly because of so many hours he had spent practicing, performing, and gripping a quill pen to compose his extraordinary music.

There is no such a thing such as 'natural geniuses'. All those extraordinary things happened in human history takes time to achieve. Mention great names you have in mind, and read their biography, and learn what they did in their life. They devoted their life to whatever they are mastering. And when people talk about life, implicitly they talk about time, because life is about time.

Some people think the result will come instantly. They read one great book, and they think tomorrow they will get the 'big result'. It simply cannot happen.

Read many books, write many pages. Do many small errors, and learn from them. Be patient and be consistent. Don't give up because of those errors. And don't give up because the result seem so far away or so high to reach. Be confident and be patient to take a ladder a day, by the end of the week you will stepped seven ladders. And if you pay enough attention to the process of doing it, by the end of the year, you are 365 ladders higher than those people who are expecting instant results.

Patience is not the same as not doing anything. Patience is about put your faith about the end result, however long it will take to get there. Patience is about taking those ladders every day. Do something every day, whatever it is you can do. Take that one ladder today to make you higher than anyone else.

Time to excel in anything, takes time, endurance, and patience.