In the past, some co-workers called me “Mr Serious”.
Perhaps, it’s due to my positions or
high-quality outputs produced.
Today though nobody called me by that nickname anymore, the mantra remains the same: “Always giving our best. Nothing less.” To excel, we have to be serious in the things we do. If you want to get quality work from me, you can ask. But they won’t be cheap! I’m serious.
In the past, life was easy to get by even with little money.
Today with such high inflation and high cost of living, no wonder 52% of our population said they do not have enough money to keep going. It’s really tough and serious when one has not enough money. Only very few can say life is easy for them as they have multiple sources of wealth!
In the past, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going.
Today in uncertain times, the tough gets going somewhere instead of just “lying flat”. They seem to always have some kind of back-up plans to keep moving forward.
In the past, lifelong learning widened one’s work scope and abilities and opened many job opportunities.
Today, it means nothing if lifelong learning
does not equates to keeping current or securing new jobs!
All those initiatives of raising retirement
age, re-employment age, fair-employment guidelines look so amazingly good on
paper, but they all don’t work unless employers and hiring managers erase their
negative perceptions and bias against ageism.
In the past, life was simpler and straight-forward.
I just need to do better than other humans to
get ahead.
Now, it’s getting very tough as I also have
to compete against machines. They are ‘learning’ machines (actually stealing)
my artworks and contents to produce ‘something’ for free without paying me any
royalty fees. They may be also taking over my jobs in future. What the **** Damn
to those who invented these machines pushing humans to stop thinking and
learning!
In the past, life was already quite tough.
Now, it’s even tougher.
For some essential stuff and food, prices have gone up by 45% or more. We are the world’s richest country for 2023 but only those rich have the financial strengths and time to keep “dancing in the rain”. Many are desperately hanging on trying to survive the current storm!
In the past, I could not imagine what my life would be like. So I asked a fortune-teller to give me some indications where should I go. This was told to me:
“You are like a small boat going across a
large river being nearly wrecked by a big storm. You will reach the other side
of the river safely but it will take a long time. You will have to meet with
some difficulties but in future you will be alright. Take care of yourself, you
may get sickness. Your relatives and friends will not be able to help or
support you in any way. Your things and properties having been lost can hardly
be found and your luck in doing other business is also not very good.”
Damn! No wonder I’m still struggling
today….😫
