"If you are successful, it is because somewhere, sometime, someone gave you a life or an idea that started you in the right direction. Remember also that you are indebted to life until you help some less fortunate person, just as you were helped."

 

- Melinda Gates, Valedictory Speech, 1982

 

Read an article about Melinda Gates stepping into the public life to push for the philanthropic work of the Gates Foundation, and I am drawn to her seemingly magnetic personality. In particular, she related that she would have preferred to stay out of the public light forever, but her older daughter got her thinking. "I really want her to have a voice, whatever she chooses to do. And I need to role model that for her."

 

Role models can make us aspire to be more than what we are now, to achieve more, to be a better person. I think of some of the women in the public arena who inspire me - Mrs Carmee Lim, Amb Chan, and now Melinda Gates - and I think, there's so much to be achieved out of this life; so greet it with more optimism!