Riches to Rags?
Ever since started working, I have had the chance of meeting many different people from different backgrounds; from small time millionaires to regular folk like me, high flyers to the regular run of the mill guy. eloquent speakers to the linguistically challenged.
The thing that has caught my attention is the fact that more often than not, people seldom are what they seem to be. Take my former colleague for example. When I first joined the company, my first impressions were that this guy was someone capable. The way he dared to order me around and basically be the boss of me gave me the impression that he MUST know what he is talking about for him to dare order me around like that. So I took his orders without that much thought. Now that he is gone, and I have taken over his job, I realise that he was highly incompetent and make countless screw ups! The worst part of it is that it is up to me now to rectify his mistakes to the client. I thought he was in his early 40's what wit the way he carried himself, and the white hair on his head, but I later found out that he was really in his early thirty's only, much too young to be carrying the 'Managers' title he insisted on having when he first joined. I suppose now that I have taken over his tasks and job scope, I too should start demanding the 'manager's title. But then again, I hardly think I am ready for such a big title at such a young age, plus, its not what you are called that really matters anyway, its what you contribute. Anyway, privately, I still like to think of myself as 'a really expensive office boy'. It sounds so much more fun.
But the one person that really caught my eye and won my respect was a quiet and ordinary looking man by the common name of Mr. Tan. At first glance, you would not think much of him. He looked just like your ordinary 'uncle' who visits the kopitiam every morning. He dresses in typical uncle cloths and uses an age mobile phone. He eats regular food from the nearby shops and he drives a regular car (no merc, no BMW). Not in your wildest dreams would you imagine that Mr. Tan is in fact a millionaire many times over. He owns a Civil Construction company of his own and does businesses work millions of ringgit and travels around the world on a regular basis. And yet I detect no air about him. No acting as if he could just buy his way into everything. He doesn't wear fancy designer watches, thousand ringgit shirts or use a Vertu mobile phone. In fact, he uses a model that is 5 years old. Compare that to my new colleague; 27 years old, drawing an almost equivalent salary with me, but drives a nice Japanese car, wears stylish trendy cloths, a fancy watch and a mobile phone the price of 'only' a full months salary. He has all the trappings of wealth, but no real money to boot.
It forces me to conclude that many of the people, especially of the younger age are more interested in the things money can buy them more than anything else. It puzzles me; how DO you afford such an expensive phone anyway? Being able to come out with the cash is not the same as being able to afford it. They drive fancy cars, wear fancy cloths, but before the middle of the month they are broke and out of cash. Is that what you call living the lifestyle? Its all just a front, an illusion of success and having made it in life. They become more concerned by how others perceive them rather than what they really are. That is the problem with my generation; how we think of ourselves relies so much on how others perceive us. It is a flaw in thinking that I think is only too common these days.
If you ask me, we should all take a lesson from Mr. Tan. Haven't we all seen or heard of stories of old ' apek' wearing japanese thongs and shorts who walk into the bank only to dig out of their pockets tens of thousands of ringgit?
posted by Compulsive Blogger @ 12:49 pm
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