Life is short, and we spend our lifetime without much regret. Here are some tips for you to consider.
3 things to cherish in life
1. The best investment is your health
A classmate who has worked in a large company for many years after graduation resigned and returned to Wuhan from Shanghai two years ago. Before leaving, I ate with him and asked him: “Why did you leave? After all, you have been here for so many years, the salary is good, and you have company stocks.”
He said that the resignation was due to a very accidental incident. During that time, he rushed to a project and worked overtime frequently. Already a thin man, he was burned out from the work. He looked even more out of shape, with dark circles under his eyes.
He got a cab home after overtime work one night; he was so exhausted he fell asleep in the backseat. He didn’t wake up until he got to his destination, and his mental state was also very depressed when he woke up. The taxi driver, a Shanghai man in his fifties, hesitated to speak and finally said to him kindly: “Bro, it is best not to touch drugs at such a young age.”
After hearing the driver’s words, he had only one thought: resign tomorrow, as he cannot continue to do this. So when a job not only deprives you of all your time, but also deprives you of your health, you must be cautious.
As it is often said: “If you have a life to make money, you have to have a life to spend it!” As a person, no matter how great the ideals and aspirations you have, no matter how much talent you have, how much property you have, and how much you want to take care of your parents, wife, and children, everything is zero without good health.
2. Manage your money for the long term
An American couple won a massive jackpot of US$500 million dollars. After deducting taxes, there was $US327 million left. Five months later, a reporter interviewed them and found they did not seem to have won the lottery.
Their lives looked the same as before: a house worth US$300,000, a car worth tens of thousands of dollars, shopping at a nearby cheap supermarket, wearing loose clothes with freestyle, and even disposing of the trash themselves. No planes, cruises, mansions, cars, or even luxuries. “So what about the money? Where did the money go? What did you spend it on?” the reporter couldn’t help asking.
The couple replied with a smile: “We have made some investments and donated to several charities for research on cancer and solving children’s hunger.” They said frankly: “We are delighted with our current life. Of course, we considered spending the money in the past. But once the material desire is ignited, it would be difficult to extinguish, eventually swallowing us up and making us lose our minds.”
After the reporter sent out this news, it became popular online because of the couple’s attitude towards money. With colossal wealth, it is scarce to have such sobriety and reason. There are too many examples of people becoming degenerate as soon as they become wealthy.
Many lottery winners became impoverished within a few years. Therefore, if you have money, please cherish it and don’t abuse it. So that will keep you sober and rational; if you don’t have money, you can’t squander it. Because you need money for everything in your life, only with money in your hands can you have the confidence to stay calm in times of crisis.
3. The most important aspect of relationships is trust
My uncle and his friend started a business more than 10 years ago. My uncle trusted his partner very much, so he entrusted him with full power to manage the factory and let him control the finances, production quality, etc. Meanwhile, my uncle looked for more businesses and customers outside every day. However, more than a year later, my uncle had gone bankrupt. The friend who ran a business with him ran away with the money!
Due to poor production quality, three batches of merchandise were returned by customers in a row, resulting in a backlog of goods, insufficient capital turnover, and the company went bankrupt. My uncle mortgaged his property and car and sold the equipment to pay the workers’ wages. With nothing left, it took another five years for him to return, and the pain in his heart is unknown.
Later, the one who ran away with money was caught in another “deception,” the evidence was conclusive, and he was jailed. Lao Tzu once said about life: “No one can succeed without honesty, no businesses can prosper without credibility, and no country can be strong without good faith.”
If a person loses trust in others, he loses the foundation of his self-cultivation and career, and he will eventually be punished.
