About me

About me
I am Agaton Raymaro Grasparil III of Sibalom, Antique, and I am the one in blue. I am a son of Macario Lotilla Grasparil and Victoria Raymaro-Grasparil. This is one of my favorite pictures; this was taken at a restaurant in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, and with me are some of my relatives on the Lotilla side; they belong to the branch of Salvacion Lotilla-Galera who was an elder sister of my paternal grandmother, Soledad Lotilla-Grasparil.

Note

I believe that a person should be assessed based not on what positions he has occupied, but on what actions he has taken; not on what he has attained for himself, but on what he has done for others; not on what he has gotten, but on what he has given.

Some Notable Quotations

You can get by on charm for about 15 minutes. After that, you better know something.
-- H. Jackson Brown Jr.


Love is never lost.  If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart. -- Washington Irving


In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge.  --  Ikujiro Nonaka


Money and success don't change people; they merely amplify what is already there.  --  Will Smith


True leadership cannot be awarded, appointed or assigned.  It comes only come from influence, and that cannot be mandated. It must be earned.  --  John C. Maxwell


Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.  We are the ones we've been waiting for.  We are the change that we seek.  --  Barack Obama


The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision.  You can't blow an uncertain trumpet. 
--  Theodore M. Hesburgh


The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.  --  Theodore Roosevelt


Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works, too.  --  Robert Half


Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.  --  Peter F. Drucker


I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.  --  Bill Cosby


It is wise to keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final.  --  Roger Babson


Eighty percent of success is showing up.  --  Woody Allen


The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.  --  Martin Luther King


When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.  --  Napoleon Hill


There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.  --  Napoleon Hill


No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave. 
--  Calvin Coolidge


Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. 
--  Calvin Coolidge


The heart that loves is always young.  --  Greek proverb


To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. 
--  Ralph Waldo Emerson


Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.  --  Chinese Proverb


If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the women and men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.  --  Antoine de Saint-Exupery


Throughout your life, there is a voice only you can hear. A voice which mythologists label "the call." A call to the value of your life. The choice of risk and individual bliss over the known and secure.

You may choose not to hear your spirit. You may prefer to build a life within the compound, to avoid risk. It is possible to find happiness within a familiar box, a life of comfort and control.

Or, you may choose to be open to new experiences, to leave the limits of your conditioning, to hear the call. Then you must act.

If you never hear it, perhaps nothing is lost. If you hear it and ignore it, your life is lost.  --  Jennifer James


Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in.  --  Marjorie Moore


Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.  --  Martin Luther King, Jr.


I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. 
--  Mahatma Gandhi


You have not lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.  --  John Bunyan


People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.  --  John C. Maxwell


I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.  --  Albert Schweitzer


One of the things I keep learning is that the secret of being happy is doing things for other people. 
--  Dick Gregory


A civilization flourishes when people plant trees under whose shade they will never sit.  --  Greek proverb


Some people see things as they are and say 'why', I look at things that never were and say 'why not'. 
--  Robert F. Kennedy


There are many wonderful things that will never be done if you don't do them.  --  Charles D. Gill


We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.  --  Mother Theresa


It is one of the beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely help another without helping himself.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson


To the world you may just be one person, but to one person you may be the world.  --  Brandi Snyder


Life is partly what we make it, and partly by what it is made by the friends we choose. 
--  Tennessee Williams


Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumps, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat.  --  Theodore Roosevelt


The highest reward for a person's work is not what they get for it, but what they become because of it.
--  John Ruskin


Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others.  --  Danny Thomas


Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.  --  Margaret Mead


The human contribution is the essential ingredient. It is only in the giving of oneself to others that we truly live.  --  Ethel Percy Andrus


A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove. But the world may be different, because I was important in the life of a boy. 
--  Forest Witcraft


You give little when you give of your material possessions.  It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
--  Kahlil Gibran


Leadership is based on inspiration, not domination; on cooperation, not intimidation. 
--  William Arthur Wood