“Our greatest voids determine our greatest values.”
The Corporate Ninja – aka Ron Lee – adopted this line as his way of finding his personal power and life purpose.
Aged five, “I left a supportive home environment and attended school at the height of the White Australia Policy. As soon as I arrived I was bullied, tormented and victimised. Name-calling was a daily event, I was always in fights and I was only a little kid.”
The White Australia Policy was part of the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 which gave British migrants preference over all others. Despite being born in Australia to Australian-born parents, the effects of the policy were widespread, particularly for Chinese immigrants.
One of the clauses of this Act stated, “The doctrine of the equality of man was never intended to apply to the equality of the Englishman and the Chinaman.” That policy was in place until the implementation of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. Seventy-four years of constitutional racism was entrenched in Australian society.
For Ron, “from the inside looking out I was Australian, but from the outside I look Chinese. Because of my appearance, at school I was looked down upon from all angles, including some of the teachers.
“I had no idea about self-protection or being in my own individuality and personal power, and it was that way for many years. For much of that time I felt entirely powerless.”
Given the quote above that our greatest voids determine our greatest values, Ron knew “my void was personal power and so therefore my value was personal power. All of the philosophers I’ve read stated that our purpose in life is to leverage our talents, abilities, knowledge, experience and passion to serve as many people as possible.”
“One universal law states that for every disadvantage there’s a benefit. For every perception of a negative, there’s an equivalent perception of a positive, and they’re all perceptions and illusions anyway.”