You must have heard the word “money is nothing” before. And I’m not going to downgrade your intellectual by saying phrases like “my love worth more”, “health is more important” or “asalkan aku bahagia”.
The truth can be they said so to avoid “pening kepala” thinking of how to fund their needs/wants than really don’t want the money. Give them $10K for free & definitely they’ll take without hesitation.
Instead, I’m going to tell you a story.
Fahrin is a successful businessman. He managed a business of car renting. Because of global recession, his company unable to pay debt although Fahrin himself had used all his savings to fund the loan. As a result, he himself has to loan his friends money for food.
One day, his closed friend Joe plan to pay him a visit. Joe is Fahrin’s super closed friend when he studied in Chicago, US. As a friend’s treat, Fahrin give one of his finest cars for Joe’s “cuti-cuti Malaysia”. Out of respect, Joe gave Fahrin RM1000 as deposit.
The next day of getting the RM1000 cash, he used that money to repay his loan nearby grocery store owner named Muthu. Muthu is kind enough to loan him RM1000 worth of grocery to keep him living.
The day after that, Muthu rushed to Kenny’s house to pay his two-months housing rent. Muthu thanked Kenny for not ‘halau’ him and his family from one of Kenny’s rental house in KL.
In the following day, Kenny meets Obek to pay his loan for the “tikar Sarawak” he bought 3-months back. And Obek used that RM1000 to pay Fahrin for the car repair (sebab langgar tiang letrik) he used to rent before when he was in KL for holidays.
On the 5th day visit, Joe went back to US and Fahrin used the money he got from Obek to pay back Joe’s initial deposit.
-Story End-
Nobody gets the money but then Joe’s initial deposit able to solve some (if not all) of the financial problems faced by others. This is what meant by “stimulus package” announced by government whenever financial crisis happened. Government will get back (or more) whatever they spent through tax (and vote in next pilihan-raya) if they give it to the “right people”.
Secondly, there is no point of keeping $1 million under the pillow or in the safe/security box. If another 1 million people doing the same, you won’t get another $1 million anytime sooner (or forever). This makes Japanese financial crisis in 90’s takes so long to recover. If you don’t know what to do with your money, give someone who knows (spend/invest/keep in bank).
Thirdly, people give/spend/loan/invest their hard-earned money out of trust. The moment their trust been breached, you’ll be blacklisted forever. This is critical for someone who like to “pinjam duit” or running their own business. Don’t treat your customer/lender by the amount of money they pay you. Instead, respect them as a person. It takes more than $1 million for them to “trust” you back.
Bottom line, money is nothing more than just a tool to get what you want/need.
- You can’t buy happiness but you can buy something to make someone happy
- You can’t buy health but you can buy supplement (Shaklee?) to keep you healthy
But please don’t trade yourself (maruah, iman, trust) for money. If you do, you’ll be the cheapest person by virtue although you are the richest man by asset.
To me, it just not worth it…
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