Hi Richard,
For a plant to grow successfully above the ground, it requires a healthy and vigorous root system. For a person to participate successfully in the community, he/she requires a healthy and vigorous personality.
As a summary of my previous writings, there are 3 areas that one should keep advancing for a good personality. They are: Love (仁), Wisdom (智) and Courage (勇). In each of the 3 areas, I have also given you four important keywords.
We should strengthen the love for our parents (孝), for our brothers and sisters (悌), for our friends and community (忠), and even for those who have hurt us (恕). To raise our wisdom, we must learn (學), practice (習), share experience with others (傳) and keep reviewing (省). When facing challenges, we must have the courage to work hard (勤), resolve problems (奮), never give up (毅) and control our emotions (忍).
One day, Kenneth asked me, “How do you tell if one's life is successful?” It is a very good question indeed. Different people could have different answers for it. For some people, the success of one's life is related to how much money and power one could have. From your dad's perspective, I measure one's success by these 12 attributes.
With love, Patrick