A Mind of My Own

Robert Kyosaki is a businessman to learn from. After publishing his famous Rich Dad Poor Dad, he went on to publish other books and eventually came out with Cash Flow board game that depicts real life situations. The famous Rat Race is a cycle that everyone who has gone through and currently going through will know. The line between work and home are sometimes blurred when one is to be on 24-hour standby. I have friends who are stuck in the rut, as they call it.

The money is often used for expenses that we dare not calculate because if we do, we might just lose hope that there is life besides working hard for survival. I met up with a friend recently who is doing a lot of things and in his words, survival. After talking to so many people about how life is going, there is something in common that we have. We just want to be able to go to places without worrying about the money later.

We work only because we want the best in life for ourselves or family. It’s pure and simple. While some may have used the other methods of getting a lot of money, the majority is still copying from the people who want to be successful yet not there. Someone asked why we used to copy from homework from those As students when we were studying but not copy from those who are successful in life.

In my life at work, I have gone through situations that anyone who is working will encounter. That’s when I know that life in the corporate world isn’t permanent despite what the job states. We may be skeptical of certain things. However, in order to make the right decisions, we often have to analyse and find out what is being presented. Even if the opportunity is missed, someone else will take it up.

A favourite story that I found is shown below.

What God gives us may not be glamourous but if it can get me out of the situation and let me find myself in a place without limits, I will do it.

I have been through this before and I am trying to stay calm. It’s not easy when the contract stated one thing but the recruitment agency decided to modify the ambiguous statement to their benefits. Of course everyone is out to gain something. However, this delay of my salary has gone too far. How can a requirement agency be unable to get a person after 3 weeks? Unless something serious happened to the person or the person had simply gone overseas.

Yet again, I had to demand my salary. This time, throwing in Ministry of Manpower’s name did not help one bit since the person in charge stood by the company’s standard reason “The client has yet to respond.” Well, in whatever you do, as long as it’s to do with the company and money, you do your utmost best to get that sum of money, right? If it were your pay, how would you feel about having to delay by every 2 months? Whaddaya mean I have to eat grass for 2 months?

The most ridiculous excuse? “The temp staff…” I don’t care what temp staff or perm staff. They are still humans, right? Humans need to eat in order to have strength to continue working, right? If you get your pay on time, I expect the same too!

With this, I am battling with my conscience whether to expose the name of the agency or just keep it a secret. Perhaps, as a cautionary measure to those who are considering temp positions, I have no idea if they pay the perm staff on time but as a temp, I suggest that you use the services of Robert Walters, Addecco, Recruit Express, Kelly Services, Manpower, and Today’s Career. At least your pay gets paid on time as stipulated in the contract.

Without limits, I can just buy anything and do anything at the drop of a hat. I don’t have to inform any boss why I am taking leave and whether the tasks can be completed before I am on long leave. I always believe that no matter what, anything related to work can’t be finished even if I do the urgent stuff before I am on leave.

When I return from any number of days from leave, the tasks are always there. Without limits, I can simply buy way too much clothes for me to fill up my tiny wardrobe, perhaps upgrade my wardrobe to a walk-in so that I can put all my clothes there.

Without limits, I can buy all the shoes I like, take holidays anywhere without worrying about how much there is left in my bank account, throw a party at any place I fancy, buy way too much stuff on impulse just because I like them. Without limits, I’m wild on purchases. Not healthy but I feel happier spending money then trying to earn them.

Earning money has always been and will be a tough job because facing humans is a problem by itself since dealing with people isn’t my forte. I’m improving and after mixing around with other people, I’ve come to a conclusion. Humans love to live without limits. With limits, they lament about the pay, the boss, the weather, the leaves they have to take even though they have no money to travel overseas, the noisy kids, the obnoxious people hugging the poles in trains, the naked people running about in some parts of Singapore, the ridiculous complains about the same things over and over again at Stomp, and so on and so forth.

Without limits, I may not have discovered that I have been stopping myself from certain things. I have realised that limits on certain things help me grow in certain ways that I have never thought possible. Still, I like to buy without worrying about money. That’s the one limit that I will be rid of.

It’s my first time using this recruitment agency’s services and I must say, I’m utterly horrified, to say the least, at their business ethics. After getting me down to their office for an interview with photocopies of my NRIC, I was later informed that I was to attend an interview at the company. I went through all that without any hitches.

It was when I had submitted my time-sheet on time then I realise the horrors. The pay never came. I did react too late as the second week of delay arrived, I was called by the agent asking me for my address. I asked if she still had my photocopied NRIC and she asked if the address had changed. Goodness me! I had filled up the application form with that same address including the updated postal code! What was wrong?

I waited for the cheque to be posted and by the 3rd week, I emailed them to expedite. No reply. Not a phone call either. Eventually, my money ran out. Good grief! Without any money, how to have lunch? The stall owners aren’t giving me any charity just because I wasn’t paid!

I tried all means and although I did get them on the phone, I wasn’t satisfied with “we’re still waiting for the client to pay us so we can pay you” thing. That was when we finally verified with the manager here who informed us that the agency had sent the invoice wrong the 1st time. They only sent a 2nd invoice after 2 weeks.

My colleague and I decided to book an appointment with MOM. Apparently, the appointment would cost us $3 via EZ-Link card. The appointment would last for 30 minutes. I’m still keeping that appointment intact just in case the cheque decides to play basketball. Will have to go down personally on Tue evening to get the cheque and bank it in right away to verify its authenticity.

I’m keeping the agency’s name a secret at the moment. If my cheque for Dec 2009 is being delayed by 2 working days, I’m calling them every hour.

Travelling to work can be a tedious task if I have to board squeeze into the crowded bus along with thousands of others who are also going to the same place. I have to do the same in the evening and try to be the 1st to board since the bus driver can be too generous with sudden brakes that make everyone move with inertia towards the front while the standing ones fall like dominoes.

I’m not sure if I would like to come back for another 5 months although the money would be very useful. I just believe that things will be better in the next few months and I can finally take a breather. A long breather that will be enjoyable.

My short 2.5 months stint had been rather interesting since I would want to do it again but at another place. Meeting new people have been fun and I never had so much fun before!

I find it interesting that people often want to plan the career path for others if they find out that the person has no concrete idea in the first place. I had my career path including a family with kids planned out for me. I doubt that I want to compromise the time with my kids with work. I love my family more than my job. However, I’m spending more time at work than with my family.

I’ve seen ex-colleagues who took leaves just to make sure their young children are well again only to return to the office with their bosses telling them not to take too much leaves. I’ve seen people taking a lot of medical leaves due to their health. I’ve seen colleagues complaining about the lack of compassion by their bosses when their family members passed away.

It’s just so scary even though those are little things. However, little things lead to big results. Life is simple, it’s just complicated with people who want too many things.

As my stint here will end in 5 working days, I’m just glad that I won’t have to squeeze into the bus and pray for a seat even if it’s a 20 minute ride. It’s always good to be able to have a seat.

Imagine your childhood friend comes along and tell you that he/she is having a business venture that is sure to have high returns and raving about how many people he/she has found. Would you want to know more? Of course! You would want to be a part of it even! Having prepared a sum of money that could be part of your marriage or other investment plans, you hope that the returns will be high since your good friend has raved about it so much.

However, when you arrived at your friend’s supposed workplace in hopes of passing him/her the money, the receptionist tells you that the friend is no longer working there for the past few weeks. After talking a while longer, the receptionist gently breaks the news that others have been cheated by this “friend” and all were school mates too.

You look at your envelope filled with money and get back to your routine job. A cheat, right? What kind of friend is this? I have no idea but I do hope that my friends are really good! Thankfully, I have good friends. The above scenario was shown in House, the series.

In desperate times, one would tend to listen to something that shouts “HUGE MONETARY RETURNS!” and forget to think logically. I would want to keep my friends and not cheat them with this low trick. Whatever it is, it is always good to do things with a clear conscience and sleep well at night.

When I first heard Michael Jackson’s songs, it was the music video titled “Black or White“.

What fascinated me were the changes of the people inside the video. Male to female and back to male again with different races coming in together for this video. Michael Jackson incorporated that no matter what race or skin colour one is, we are still humans; eyes, legs, all our bodies comprised of the same organs.

One of his greatest hits would be HiStory. A massive production complete with a statue of him in his famous leather jacket. His dance moves included his famous moon walk that many subsequently followed when imitating him during contests. He started out in the group called The Jackson Five with his siblings. Their music can be found in The Ultimate Collection.

I didn’t know about Michael Jackson X-Posed – The Interview in the MP3 format for sure. Although I know that being that famous as him, he would surely garner all sorts of criticism that is often part of being in the entertainment circle. Including his life that was filled with ups and downs of every couple.

His Heal The World was the song that I had sung while studying in primary school during a school celebration that I totally don’t remember what sort of celebration it was for. All I remembered was that I was on the stage with the rest of the class singing this song.

Frankly speaking, during the subsequent years of my growing up, I never heard such songs from other singers besides Michael Jackson. Songs about kindness and love for the world are rare. What made MJ a hot icon was that he started popularising pop music that others soon followed in his path in hopes of making it big.

Now that he is forever gone, his worth has suddenly increased as the songs sung by him are now limited editions. Funny how one’s worth increased because of one’s death. Yet, it is how it works as there won’t be any more new releases. Although, if the scientists manage to figure out how to stay young forever, the worth may just be decreased drastically.

I may not be subscribing to any newspapers now but I do know that there are still companies retrenching in hundreds only to hire people with a lower pay. There are many ways to be laid off. The feeling that the boss is telling you “I’m letting you go” due to various reasons. Check out the reasons that people are being laid off here.

• Just because of a burn incident, this guy was laid off.
• Returning from a hip surgery, this guy was told to leave.
• Took a two-week medical leave only to be laid off upon returning.
• Despite a good appraisal, he was fired on a Sunday birthday party.

The above are just some ways that companies can do just to tell you that your services are no longer needed. The feeling that goes through those people is horrible as it spells of uncertainties. Despite all these layoffs, Wal-Mart is opening up new positions. It goes to show that the industry is booming business.

Looking at Singapore, NTUC has plans for automated distribution centres. In addition, it has expanded the FairPrice at Jurong Point. Amazing, isn’t it?

Guess what I found? A site that tells management on how to lay off employees. This is a cycle. Just like how we live our lives; born, study, work, die. Excluding terminal illnesses, we are all bound to die at one point in our lives. Just how fulfilling do we feel our lives should be?

Two important ingredients in our lives; happiness and family. A job is for survival. We work to survive this day. We all have dreams but have we let our dreams that were formed during our childhood die as we started working hard for 40 to 50 years?

I have been keeping myself busy so that I feel useful. Productive even. So far, so good. All I need is to be consistent. This means I need to keep the discipline in line or else, I would stray from my path and goals. I have not completed my wishlist yet. I felt really good when completing some of the things in my wishlist. I felt more alive since it meant that I was getting closer to the goals I have set for myself.

There are short term, mid term and long term goals. Just place them in front of me and read them every day makes me motivated to move along. I have been reading a few books and they have helped me keep my mind in check. When I need some encouragement, the books were there for me to re-read and find another paragraph or chapter that would help me get back in focus.

Having a life coach also helped as there were times when I felt discouraged or just needed a listening ear. For a year, I was struggling with my internal thoughts and fears on the changes that I wanted to make. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to take it but the saying, “No pain, no gain!” came back to my mind. Although it is often used in exercises, the pain was actually my discomfort at the major change.

I took up volunteering at NLB even though I hated the first session, I could have managed my choice in handling my emotions better by stopping to reflect before reacting. I also took up a position as a part time training assistant. I still enjoy it as the time is flexible and I do get to enjoy the time I have now.

There may be times when I have to be stern and firm with the young kids since they tend to shout whenever they are in the room with a stranger unless they have been managed before entering the classroom. In life, I discovered that it wasn’t really the money. It was the fact that I had to put food on the table that I had to work myself senseless.

I was trying to seek a purpose in life and finding none, I was feeling very low at a point in time as I felt that life wasn’t just work and being unable to fulfill the goals I had in mind when I was younger. Many times in the past, I felt upset with the career path I was walking on.

While in my search for a purpose in life, I found that self-improvement books have helped me discover that I wasn’t the only one in the world feeling helpless. There were/are a lot of people struggling to find peace within themselves too!

The skeptics may not be able to accept it now, but sooner or later, they will also discover that they have been trying to find a purpose in their lives too. When we have a purpose in life, we feel energised each day because we are motivated to be happy for our decision to take steps in changing our lives for the better.

Money problems plague everyone. When you have too much money, you find yourself surrounded by people who get close to you because they have something to gain. When you have too little money, you find yourself surrounded by bills that keep piling up no matter how hard you try.

I have chosen a new path. A path that many may shun because of personal perceptions. It is a road filled with obstacles that I have to overcome and those who have encountered the very same obstacles have now reached a stage where they have planned to be. At the very place called Freedom.

I have no one to blame if I fail to take the correct path of action. Positive attitudes are now rare especially during this hard time when the recession doesn’t seem to let up. With so many people losing jobs, there is one thing that I have found over the years.

I have no control over who will hire me but I have control over which company I choose to join.

I have no control over the economy drastic changes but I have control over how I save and spend.

I have no control over how people think but I have control over how I think.

I have no control over how the company operates but I have control over how I operate.

For many years, many people have struggled to find their financial freedom and quitted before they even got there. Many factors contribute to this case and often, countless rejections have made people fear rejections. This is when negative thoughts start filling up the heads.

I have seen how people around me struggle and complain about how their Mondays suck. I have yet to see any action taken to rectify the situation. I have seen how some have done something but still struggling with what they have decided to do. Sometimes, they don’t know where to find mentors since it can be tough to find someone who is willing to share their experiences. Life has made people into eggs; hard on the outside, soft on the inside.

I choose this path because I want to control where my money is flowing.

I choose this path because I want to fulfill my dreams and goals.

I choose this path because I want to help others.

I choose this path because I believe I will succeed.

I choose this path because I have seen how the death of my grandfathers affected the family.

I choose this path because I want to enjoy the luxury of having time on my hands without always worrying about what my parents are always worrying about.

I choose this path because I can control more of what I previously never had control over before.

I choose this path because I want my parents to be able really enjoy life.