Surprisingly Inspiring: First Impressive Impression with Mr. Siv Sichan

I attended seminar lectured by Mr. Siv Sichan more than a week ago. The lecture was delivered under the banner “From the Killing Fields to the White House”.  He is a killing field’s survivor, an author, and also a former US ambassador to United Nations.

His story is more than inspiring. The only thing I regret is that there weren’t many participants. It was held at night and there were roughly 60 people who got there. It’s a kind of motivational story and that story needs to be shared.

He authored an autobiography titled “Golden Bone”. According to Khmer superstition, people who are born with golden bone are really, really lucky. He said it was luck that made his life successful. But you had to create your own luck, he went on. I love it. You are lucky become you had create your own luck.

He fled to Thailand, where he was jailed for illegal border crossings, to escape the killing of Khmer Rouge before he made way to the United States. He had two dollars, a bag of rice and a scarf of his mother when he was in US for the first time. He speaks French and English. So, being a taxi driver was not hard for him. It was his first job in the State.

He campaigned for Bush senior in 1990. And Bush junior appointed to be the ambassador to UN in 2001. He is serving as a State Commissioner in Texas. He was offered a scholarship from Columbia Universality holding a Master degree in International Affairs. I’m also doing that major.

His book, available in Khmer, English and Portuguese, was published in 2008. Interestingly, he was invited to speak in the White House about his book. The audiences were dead silent. It was getting more and more interesting. He was the first Asian American to serve the Post. This shows we can also do big things. 

I love his concluding remark: When you are doing well, don’t forget to do good. I think he implied we should do good to unleash the potential of our poor people. They are not stupid. They just don’t enjoy the opportunities. All we need to do is to release their potential.

He advised us not to give up, no matter what happens, your H.O.P.E. H.O.P.E stands for Honest, Optimistic, Perseverance and Extraordinary.

He has come this far with little resources he got.  Our world is better than his world. We are supposed to do a better job. He has been very lucky. And he is lucky because he knows how to create our own luck.