Lexmark’s GSOlympics – An Epic Journey

Recently, our department had the GSOlympics – GSO (name of our department) + Olympics (games). We can embellish the way it was envisioned, but I had my own acumen of the main moxie to this company activity – to engage employees in becoming better employees. In any human activity, there are lessons learned.

I learned that through this competition, employees strive to be the best. I saw it from how determined the players were to be called as champs. They practiced, strategized, and persevered, but the moral growth of a competition requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it. In Lexmark, we aim to be the center of excellence, and employees are giving their best to achieve this common goal and through this competition, it made me more focused on my job from the learned elements I had from the competition.

Parents differ from values they teach to their kids. Others teach their kids to appreciate simplicity; others teach their kids to appreciate perfection. My dad taught me to appreciate life at its simplest form, and my mom prepared me to embrace the real world’s challenges by achieving perfection. No wonder they stayed together for a long time because opposites do attract. My dad has his reasons and so as my mom. I am not saying that settling for less is bad, and it’s ideal to aim high. Both values were indispensable to survive in this world. It’s always good to aspire at the moon because if we fail, we land among the stars.

I am not Cinderella, and I don’t appreciate life in animation. The world is full of quenchless individuals; you’ll never know when they strike and pull you down to get where they want to be. G told me once, “ ako Marie, I try to become the better person jud in any situation.” The first time I heard it, I felt insulted. Was she trying to imply that I am the bad person? Then I realized that it was a challenge, a life-long challenge. Being the better person doesn’t necessarily mean that you are the winner. The world is not challenging us to become a man of success, but to become a man of value.