The General Theory of What People Need
These past 3 weeks have been really interesting interacting with people much older than myself. It makes me wonder why they make certain comments or have a certain mentality... Like for example, my accountant sighed and said "zuo ren hen nan" - its tough being human. Perhaps she has a very traditional Chinese mindset where she surrenders to fate, but that's just so not me. I love challenging situations and having an internal locus of control rather than being tossed around in the winds of life. However, this may just show my lack of life experience and naivety; perhaps I am still young and ambitious.
I met up with one of my sister's ex-colleague today when 2 of her friends dropped by to pass her 'The Cash Flow Quadrant' by David Kiyosaki. They joined-in on our conversation and it was interesting learning from their experiences. Part of our conversation touched on why we should move away from employment and towards entrepreneurship; how both employment and self-employment trades time for money. In other words, for the employed (like myself,) and self employed,
"no time on work = no $$$". In addition, there is also the factor of globalisation making it difficult for locals to remain employed. One way globalisation increases recession of locals is the supply of eager foreign talents willing to work for a much lower pay. Why so? Because of the exchange rate: S$900 is much more than a Chinese graduate can earn back home if they are able to get a job. So, immigrants from countries like China are willing to work much harder for a much lower pay, increasing competition with locals who expect high salaries. Also, being employed usually means doing repetitive work; 10 years of experience is no different from 1 year of experience. Would we want to do mundane, repetitive work with little sense of achievement? Is it for a pay check every month to pamper the children with toys, books and other spoils?
We further talked about how "qian goon qian" - money makes money through business, investments, equity, shares, etc. So, life's quite unfair - those that have money can make even more money faster. Having an early start is also important: that's partly how Adam Khoo and Bill Gates made their first million at a young age. So don't we all want to seize the moment while we can to achieve financial freedom as early as possible by starting businesses and making investments?
So much talk about making $$$ isn't it? Is the objective of life 'as long as you make a lot of money'? Let's ask ourselves the following questions:
'What is our purpose of earning so much money?'
Beyond comfortable living, extra $$$ does not make much difference.'What is the purpose of striving for an early retirement, of achieving financial freedom young?'
'What are you going to do when you retire? What is the purpose of what you plan to do?'
'What is the purpose of our life?'
The one who inherits our wealth may be wise, or may be a fool who will destroy what we bulit using our entire lifespan.
'Is there any meaning to storing wealth where we cannot enjoy in death?'
Well, as for me, it's a firm 'NO', the objective of my life is not 'as long as I make ALOOOOOOTTTT of $$$$$' or be so filthy rich I use bank notes as toilet paper. While making money remains in my "to do list", it is by no means the sole purpose. The goal of my life is to be more Christ-like. As people grow older, they become either more Christ-like or more evil, or secretly evil or unscrupulous. I believe it is important to remember that there is much more to life than the material things that we see and that the flesh craves for. Money can buy a lot of things, but not everything. Money cannot buy true love, care and concern. These intangible things can only be found in people. Most importantly, the human soul craves for unfailing love - unattainable from the hearts of any mortal man. In Christ alone can our deepest needs be met.
