We don’t need to reinvent the wheel if we learn from those who went before us...
I’m writing this column a few days after the memorial service for my mother, Madam Janaki Bai Devadason. It was held on Aug 12, exactly a year after her passing in 2016 at the age of 94 in the Intensive Care Unit of the Mawar Medical Centre on Jalan Rasah, Seremban.
The memorial service at the Tamil Methodist Church, also in Seremban, went well, thanks to family, friends and clergy who remembered her, and who spoke of the many ways she had blessed and helped them during her long life. To stay on schedule I didn’t say everything I wanted to about her profound, perpetual imprint upon my heart, mind and soul. For instance, my mother taught me countless lessons wrapped up in an array of proverbs, aphorisms and quotations.
HERE'S ONE EXAMPLE...
Like most people, I have a problem with procrastination. But my issue with this terrible thief of time — and therefore thief of life — isn’t as bad as it might be because my mother taught me a simple, common saying that has stayed with me for decades:
“A stitch in time saves nine.”
When she told it to me, I was seven or eight years old and didn’t understand what she meant. So I, as I had many times before that, asked: “Mummy, what does that mean?”
My mother said if we see a fraying seam on a piece of clothing, immediately sewing the damaged portion would be the best way to fix it. If we wait to deal with the problem later however, it would worsen and require more attention, money and work to rectify.
That principle, as you know, readily applies to small dental cavities in our mouths and tiny potholes on our roads. But first, I first applied her wisdom to my primary school homework: I forced myself to deal with all of it immediately upon coming home from St Paul’s Institution (SPI), Seremban.
Later, by extension, I would spend one or two days straight at the start of every long school holiday, from Friday evening throughout Saturday, completing all my holiday homework. It was exhausting doing so many assignments at one fell swoop but that meant I could enjoy the rest of the term break without worrying about unfinished work!
That discipline stayed with me — more or less — throughout the ensuing years. Later it helped in my early working career, forming the basis for many subsequent small successes and a few big ones.
QUOTES TO LIVE BY
Mulling over my mother’s ‘stitch in time’ advice, I have come to realise my life has also been qualitatively and quantitatively enriched by other quotations from other sources. Consider these three — by a poet, a publisher and a phenomenal industrialist — that have helped my clients and me over the years:
“A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back again when it begins to rain.” (Robert Frost)
“A budget tells us what we can’t afford, but it doesn’t keep us from buying it.” (William Feather)
“The average person puts only 25 per cent of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50 per cent of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100 per cent.” (Andrew Carnegie)
American poet Robert Frost won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times. He’s best known for his poem The Road Not Taken (www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken). Clearly, he wasn’t an ivory tower poet; he also understood how bankers think and work!
SHOOT FOR SUPERSTARDOM
To succeed financially, most of us need to get on the good side of the decision makers at our banks because it takes money to make money, and frankly because banks have loads more cash than we do.
The key rule in qualifying for bank loans aimed at building our wealth is showing our bankers proof of existing fiscal and financial fortitude. We do so by first nurturing consistent cash flow surpluses and then accumulating personal savings.
As you gain financial strength, it may gradually seem as though you don’t need a bank’s money. Ironically, you’ll find that’s when its staff come knocking, eagerly and repeatedly offering you loan facilities!
Switching gears from banks to budgets, publisher and author William Feather understood the distinction between knowing what’s good for us and doing it! In the case of financial planning, using a notebook to record all cash and card and online expenses to gain a better grip on our finances can, for most people, lead to tighter, better personal finance control.
Once the richest man on Earth, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie knew how to manage and grow wealth. His advice to outwork, out-think and outperform our peers is something we can all try to heed.
However, no one is holding a gun to our heads saying we MUST succeed in life. Only you can tell yourself if you’re going to settle for mediocrity or shoot for superstardom. As you mull over your choice, recognise that success may be monumentally hard to attain but failure is significantly harder to endure.
And, yes, you may quote me on that!
© 2017 Rajen Devadason
Read his free articles at www.FreeCoolArticles.com.Connect on rajen@RajenDevadason.com, www.linkedin.com/in/rajendevadason, and Twitter @RajenDevadason