This morning, I had a light breakfast in KL with an elderly man in his early 70s. We were in a typical kopitiam, not those fancy-franchising ambience but those with plastic chairs and dirty, oily table where it was hot and noisy! Once a while, I do miss those kind of kopitiam.
It was drizzling and later on, raining cats & dog for around 20 minutes.
While sitting there & having a sip of the original "kopi" without any caramel, I enjoy listening to the story of how this 70 year old ride on his roller-coaster of life.
He had a hard time in the 80s and went through bankcruptcy. Adding to his pain, his elder brother doesn't want to share the responsibility of taking care of their parents during his hardest time. And he has 6 children! Rather than dwelling on the problem, he sucked it up and explore other business venture while his existing business has rotten with many bad debts. Without much analysis, just based on some common sense, he just did it.
Eventually he managed to moved on and create a "little wealth" for himself and the business grew until he managed to earn around few hundred Ringgit a day. Remember, that was in the 80s. Earning few hundred a day was really an achievement.
Did I mentioned his elder brother was doing great financially? The greed of money can sometimes blindfold a person's consciousness and destroy a person's sense of goodness.
Long story short; a simple man with a strong commitment and perseverance, always win the race of life eventually.
I do hope this man is blessed with happiness and abundance of life (which I think he has) after going through such a tough time. Until today, he is still productively working and keeping his "old" employees who were loyal to him for years and I truly think that he deserve a great life ahead.
Not to mention being a millionaire or a tycoon, but I think his life is pretty enriching and it serve as a great lesson and example for Gen Y & Gen Z to follow.
Sometimes, we don't have to look far for heroes, just those around us might be an unknown hero or hero-in-the-making. Not only the Trump, the Buffett, the Branson are great, but this 70 year old man is a great example too.
