In my first few postings, I often mentioned that I came from a poor family background. So much so that a good friend of mine who frequented my blog remarked that I often emphasized on myself coming from a poor background. Well, how poor is poor? I found a definition of a poor person in the book by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki: Why We Want You To Be Rich? (http://www.whywewantyoutoberich.com/)
Robert mentioned that a friend of his who worked in a wealth management firm said that the firm defines a poor person as someone who DID NOT have at least $100,000 in cash to invest. Not only the firm uses this criterion to take you in as their client, they also use the same criteria to hire someone as their brokerage agent. That criterion puts most of the people in the poor category. I am certainly one of those. :-)
This picture of living in poor conditions has been haunting me for the past 17 years. I was preparing for my secondary school leaving examination then. It was the poorest chapter of my life thus far. I have to write it down now in this blog as a psychotherapy healing. I have been trying hard to leave it behind me and move on with my life.
My family and I were staying with my grandparents in their wooden house. All my uncles and unties were married and had accumulated enough wealth to buy their own house. And so they left. My family was still trying very hard to make ends meet. But we were happy having the opportunity to take care of grandpa and grandma. The wooden house was almost 30 years old then and was situated right in the middle of a T road junction. The Chinese believed that such location was of bad ‘feng shui’. My parents often quarreled due to financial problems. The conditions of the wooden house had deteriorated so much that if we would have a structural engineer to have its structural integrity checked, we would be ordered to leave the house immediately due to the high possibilities of the house collapsing. The pillars of the house were badly eaten up by termites. The roof was leaking beyond repair.
There were nights I woke up after realizing there were raindrops on my feet. It was a two-storey wooden house. The rain had seeped through the broken roof and flooring and dripped onto my feet. The mattress under my feet was already soaking wet. I would spend the rest of the night praying for the rain would stop so that I could continue sleeping before attending school the next day. If that was not poor living conditions, I don’t know what is the meaning of poor. But our family members have grown stronger and united living through such conditions. My sister and brother have worked hard to bring back money and we managed to move out of the wooden house a year later.
Of course, this definition of a poor person is just looking at the financial condition of that person. Being in a poor financial condition does not mean that the person deserved to be looked down upon. Everyone having born into this world deserves to have a chance to live and do well be it financially, physically and spiritually. All these three aspects of life are interlinked. One way to break away from being poor and move up the social ladder is through education. Through education comes awareness of what makes a person poor. Then one has a choice to change for betterment.
Robert mentioned that a friend of his who worked in a wealth management firm said that the firm defines a poor person as someone who DID NOT have at least $100,000 in cash to invest. Not only the firm uses this criterion to take you in as their client, they also use the same criteria to hire someone as their brokerage agent. That criterion puts most of the people in the poor category. I am certainly one of those. :-)
This picture of living in poor conditions has been haunting me for the past 17 years. I was preparing for my secondary school leaving examination then. It was the poorest chapter of my life thus far. I have to write it down now in this blog as a psychotherapy healing. I have been trying hard to leave it behind me and move on with my life.
My family and I were staying with my grandparents in their wooden house. All my uncles and unties were married and had accumulated enough wealth to buy their own house. And so they left. My family was still trying very hard to make ends meet. But we were happy having the opportunity to take care of grandpa and grandma. The wooden house was almost 30 years old then and was situated right in the middle of a T road junction. The Chinese believed that such location was of bad ‘feng shui’. My parents often quarreled due to financial problems. The conditions of the wooden house had deteriorated so much that if we would have a structural engineer to have its structural integrity checked, we would be ordered to leave the house immediately due to the high possibilities of the house collapsing. The pillars of the house were badly eaten up by termites. The roof was leaking beyond repair.
There were nights I woke up after realizing there were raindrops on my feet. It was a two-storey wooden house. The rain had seeped through the broken roof and flooring and dripped onto my feet. The mattress under my feet was already soaking wet. I would spend the rest of the night praying for the rain would stop so that I could continue sleeping before attending school the next day. If that was not poor living conditions, I don’t know what is the meaning of poor. But our family members have grown stronger and united living through such conditions. My sister and brother have worked hard to bring back money and we managed to move out of the wooden house a year later.
Of course, this definition of a poor person is just looking at the financial condition of that person. Being in a poor financial condition does not mean that the person deserved to be looked down upon. Everyone having born into this world deserves to have a chance to live and do well be it financially, physically and spiritually. All these three aspects of life are interlinked. One way to break away from being poor and move up the social ladder is through education. Through education comes awareness of what makes a person poor. Then one has a choice to change for betterment.
For now, whatever definition of a poor person maybe, I know I have written that poor chapter of my life down and I will move on from here. I have my dear family members especially my elder brother to thank for what I can afford now. Thank you and I love you all.
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3 comments:
indeed......family is bery impt. rich or poor, so long as the fanily unit is united, things will always change 4 the better
You should take all of these posts & write a book.
I don't know how to start but I must say something. Because you struck a chord in me that resembled my childhood.
As you did, I went through hell of being poor as well. And I must say that we "survived" and have become stronger than ever. It's not easy when you saw your friends having the nicest things in the world while the only thing you could do is to just admire. This makes it even worse when you are small and your thinking is not as mature as now. I used to blame my parents in silence for this.
Every setback has its opportunity and it depends on us how we turn it around. To me, the experience of being poor leaves me nothing but an undying desire to be rich, do or die kind of attitude. And more importantly, I always remind myself to appreciate things that come to me (be it material or otherwise) as I know the feeling of not having.
It takes courage and thanks for sharing your deepest part of your life. Well done!
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