The 99 Club

Accordingly to an old folk tale, a king wanted to find out the source of one's happiness. A wise advisor suggested that the king secretly place a bag of 99 gold coins outside the house of the servant who seemed happiest to the king. So the king did as he was advised, and one night he went to the servant's house secretly, and placed a bag of 99 gold coins outside the door. 

The next morning, the servant opened the door and was thrilled to see the bag of coins. He counted the coins, there were 99 of them. Puzzled, the servant counted them again, and there were 99 coins just the same. Now the servant was sure that no one would leave a bag of 99 coins; he was certain that there was one coin missing, and began to search everywhere for it. Before long, this once-cheerful servant who was given the gift of 99 coins became frustrated and angry about the alleged missing coin, and showed up for work at the palace in the foulest mood everyone in the palace had seen since, well, since next to never!

Beware the insidious trap that is the 99 Club. The ways of this Club lead to people to find sorrow in every joy, suspicion in every intent, doubt in every faith, excuse in every cause, inaction in every choice, uncertainty in every step, malcontent in every event. Sometimes it may be better to consider the possibility that the blessings one receives, no matter how inadequate to human eyes, are in fact complete in themselves. 

Rather than pursue imaginary gains, one may do well to celebrate the victories one already has on hand.

Rather than mourn past losses, one may do well to take stock of what one can learn from such experiences, in order to gain from future opportunities.

On Profits

"Profits Are Better Than Wages" -- Jim Rohn

To the uninitiated, there doesn't seem to be a difference between profits and wages. After all, don't they both come in more or less the same form, Cold Hard Cash?

Perhaps this little reflection of mine can help you make some distinctions between these two concepts. I wrote this in response to Jim Rohn's quote:

Wages make me a Living; 

Profits make me a Fortune.

It is sad when I speak with some executives. You know, those regular-hour types that seem to earn ever-increasing amounts as bonuses for doing the same thing day-in, day-out. They tend hardly not to seek out opportunities around them, and are content to drift along. Evidently they are either too young to be promoted, or too old to learn something new. Well, I completely empathise, because I was one of them! Believe it or not, working for a Living was something I used to do.

Being in an environment that is at best unsupportive, and at worst, outright hostile, doesn't help the aspiring executive either. It seems that there is just too much cynicism in the workplace. Invariably this results in people being too focussed on keeping their jobs rather than simply doing them, regardless of their pronoucements that they are indeed doing the latter!

So why am I seemingly fixated with Fortune? So that I can give it away! Seriously, can you give away your Living to someone else? Being thirty-something is not too early to consider leaving beind a legacy; Life is just too short not to think of such things! I have seen, heard and experienced enough to know that drifting along is no longer an option. In fact, it never was an option in the first place! 

Thus I commit to Working Hard on My Job, But Working (Much) Harder on Myself.