Entertainment   

Fellowship of the Shares

 

my poor mum didn't leave any wealth to the children but two words, "contention and benevolence" to live on. Indeed we oblidged the advice given.

 

Ming and Li - all to be achieved and measured in the eyes of others, ie how others view you. How others view you is important in our culture.  However, deep inside each individual, the true feeling is the true happiness.  Having private properties, having a big car, have a son, have smart children, have a successful career, etc,,,,the list goes on.  Many types of wealth to determine happiness for different individuals....wealth in knowledge, wealth in health, wealth in $, wealth in relationship (family)...... 

 

absolutely necessary to prove success.

But once one has attained wealth, then wealth no longer matters...

And one can then discard wealth in favour of spirituality...

But not before...

 

agreed, you are deemed to be a successor in life if you hv both Name and Benefit.

 

The Chinese has this saying, " many people will go for Ming-Li, Ming is leaving a legacy (making a name), Li is to be prosperous (to be rich)". These two factors are also weakness where opponents will act on their enemy. So pple can be corrupted bcos of money, some bcos of power, over-indulgence in literacy and cultural "hobby" (may not expressed in the correct phrase).

 

Carpe diem ... is popularly translated as "seize the day"

 

 

The True Meaning of Success
by Alexander Green, Chairman, Investment U

Over the past several months, the headlines have been full of economic misery.

Foreclosure filings hit a record in April. Repo lots overflow with reclaimed cars. And, according to The Washington Post, personal bankruptcies are up 40%.

Some of those hardest hit are enduring a perfect storm in the economy: higher food and energy prices, a weak job market, rising mortgage payments, falling home values, and tougher lending standards.

Others, however, are suffering for a different reason. They chased a blinkered image of success: the idea that status and self-worth are derived from flashy cars, expensive jewelry, or a five-bedroom McMansion in a gated community.

If you can afford these things, fine. Enjoy them. But if they are a stretch, a struggle... could they really be worth long hours, strained relationships, or your kids continually asking "where's Dad?"

After all, life is short. Time expended earning a living is, in effect, trading life for cash.

We all have an overhead, of course. But what else are you trading your life for?

I once heard a customer in a jewelry shop asking the store manager how accurate the Rolex was he was considering.

"Sir," he answered, "I'm more than happy to tell you about the amazing Swiss craftsmanship that goes into each of these timepieces. But, in truth, nothing under this counter keeps time as well as the cell phone in your pocket."

This man knew his business. He wasn't selling watches. He was selling luxury, a certain image of success.

There's nothing wrong with that. The world is full of desirable things. But some of us have forgotten that the important things in life aren't things at all. And genuine success cannot be measured in dollars and cents.

As Bob Dylan once said, "What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do."

"What is success?" asked Ralph Waldo Emerson, "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 find the best in others. To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition. To know even one life breathed easier because you have lived; this is to have succeeded."

Yet, in many ways, society equates success with money and possessions. Some imagine this is a distinctively modern phenomenon. It's not. There has always been fierce competition for resources. Citizens of ancient Greece and Rome hungered for wealth and power, too.

What has changed dramatically is today's level of material prosperity, fueled in part by access to easy credit. Unfortunately, the quest for more can quickly overtake your priorities.

Nearly 150 years ago, philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote in "The Wisdom of Life":

"It is manifestly a wiser course to aim at the maintenance of our health and the cultivation of our faculties, than at the amassing of wealth... Beyond the satisfaction of some real and natural necessities, all that the possession of wealth can achieve has a very small influence upon our happiness, in the proper sense of the word; indeed, wealth rather disturbs it, because the preservation of property entails a great many unavoidable anxieties.

"And still men are a thousand times more intent on becoming rich than on acquiring culture, though it is quite certain that what a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has. So you may see many a man, as industrious as an ant, ceaselessly occupied from morning to night in the endeavor to increase his heap of gold...

"And if he is lucky, his struggles result in his having a really great pile of gold, which he leaves to his heir, either to make it still larger, or to squander it in extravagance. A life like this, though pursued with a sense of earnestness and an air of importance, is just as silly as many another which has a fool's cap for its symbol. What a man has in himself is, then, the chief element in his happiness."

The desire to have, to acquire, and to possess, is in principle insatiable. Yet rarely does it generate the fulfillment we imagine. By contrast, doing, creating, contributing, or giving does generate the sense of satisfaction we crave.

In setting our priorities, therefore, shouldn't doing precede having? After all, how can you do what you really want if you're too busy working for what you already have?

So check your priorities. Make sure your actions are in sync with them.

As essayist Christopher Morley observed a century ago, "There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way."

Carpe Diem,

Alex

 

 

 

Which listed company dealt with conversion of petrol-driven vehicles to hybrid (i.e gas & petrol-driven) ?

 

Elfin... :)

I didn't know you subscribe to Dr. Paul Brunton's teachings too, as your words suggest...


In this sense, we are truly in kinship... (I do adore Brunton's teachings at heart)... hehehe...

And that's in itself a happy thing to mull over!!!

 

agree with you, fairygal, on the need for solitude to define happiness for oneself.

the rest of it, is like in the stock market. white noise. ignore.

one's centre of self should always be within, so that no matter how much the external world shakes and moves, you are never decentralised nor lost.

 

u ought to be a happy person in oreder to live longer whether u are rich or poor, in spore only. committing suicide and killing each others, as reflected many incidences in the papers lately, can't solve individual unhappiness but created more unhappiness to the society.

the moral of the storry is that when all in the society are benevolence, disregarding rich or poor, there will be a very harmony place to live in our small island. indeed within the small island, many had shown that quality during the recent Myamar and China natural disasters.

god bless.

 

Hope we are on the same page,that is ,definition of rich person means with US1 million in investable money or HNWI(high net worth indivual).

Except for a few ppl in this forum that are rich like cashiertan(he has been waiting for this compliment...LOL) or techsys,most of us will be just "middle" income.

Speaking for myself,i like to be HNWI but if i cannot be one then might as well make myself happy and be defensive or physcho myself be to happy....LOL

 

I prefer to be either very very rich or very very poor.

Simply because when you are very very rich you can help a lot of poor unfortunate people and you can still find friends if they do not know about your riches.

Very very poor because you can still qualify for a lot of subsidies. I mean alot of them. Some of my friend gotten about 50k subsidies besides all those that they apply individually. Pay everything at subsidies rate too.  It total up to be alot. They do not need to work like some middle class have to.  Just apply for all the subsidies because their hubby's income qualify for it. Live like middleclass too. It is unfair to us middleclass. But its true.

 

 

iPunter      ( Date: 30-Jun-2008 11:32) Posted: Let's put it this way... If one has a choice, would one prefer to be rich or poor (be very, very, very honest) ? If one's preference is granted, there will definitely be a happier person as a result!!!

 

Hi. There is a program on Channel U every Tuesday night 11.30pm, discussing such issues. I find it quite interesting.

Fairygal      ( Date: 30-Jun-2008 12:17) Posted: I want in-between. Not having to worry about how to fill up the stomach, yet not rich and have true friends around not because of money, but because of who I am.

 

I want in-between. Not having to worry about how to fill up the stomach, yet not rich and have true friends around not because of money, but because of who I am.

 

Let's put it this way...

If one has a choice, would one prefer to be rich or poor (be very, very, very honest) ?

If one's preference is granted, there will definitely be a happier person as a result!!! 

 

iPunter,

No worries. Everyone has a different way of pursuing their happiness and their definition of happiness.

 

 

[Error] 

FairyGal... :)

I am very sorry if I hurt your feelings (and many others' too) when I said that 'happy' people who are notrich  are really goondoos. I know what you mean by what you said in your post. 

But I am only saying  'goondoo' in a loving sense.... I know how people feel...

We, of course, have to make ourselves happy... because no one else can...

 

FairyGal... :)

I am very sorry if I hurt your feelings (and many others' too) when I said that 'happy' people who are not are really goondoos. I know what you mean by what you said in your post. 

But I am only saying  'goondoo' in a loving sense.... I know how people feel...

We, of course, have to make ourselves happy... because no one else can...