Tuesday, November 15, 2005

How To Be Rich

There are many self-help books on how to be rich. Some examples are like "How to make money in your pajamas - written by a Malaysian" and then there's that Robert Kiyosaki who writes that purplish books. I seriously think Robert Kiyosaki got rich by writing "How to get rich" books. If he didn't write that book in the first place, he won't be as rich as he is now. Making money in your pajamas... wait, that sounds totally wrong. Anyway, ya, there are those who understands the market and created a supply for that demand.

Here's a story of Ali, who made is rich, by saving an ant.

Ali works as a sandwich seller. He's 23 years old. One morning, after he's done making his sandwiches and started walking about the village peddling his sandwich, he saw an ant stuck in a pool of water. He decided to fish the ant out, and placed it on a rock nearby the pond. Then Ali walked away happy.

Unbeknowst to the ant, gasp! Jeng jeng jeng.... (too many dramatised sounds lah pulak)... what the ant don't know won't hurt him, but it did. The tongue of the frog snapped it off the rock and into the belly of the frog. Now, froggy has not eaten in days, and being able to finally eat something, it hops off across the dusty street to another pond nearby.

Unbeknowst to the frog, ribbit, ribbit..... a snake swallowed it whole! And the snake, so happy that it finally get to makan, went to visit his friend nearby the town area. While slithering across the pathway like the Slitherine of Harry Potter, a chinese restaurant owner saw it and took it away, to serve at his restaurant.

Happily carrying the snake in his bag towards his car, he didn't noticed the drunk driver of a Mercedes heading his way. Crash Boom Bang - Roxette.... the driver hit the chinese restaurant owner and killed him instantly. A month later, the driver who was so guilt-ridden with well,... guilt, decided to throw away all his money. He decided that he'll pose as a beggar and try begging and see who have a kind heart.

While begging, he chanced upon a young man selling sandwich who approached him, and gave him not one, but the entire load of sandwiches that he could not sell in the morning. That's about let's see... 10, 12... 15 sandwiches in all. The Mercedes driver was so proud of this young man that he gave him a cash cheque of RM1,000,000 to his good deed. Doing so, the driver feels better that well, he thinks by giving away RM1 million, his spirit can soar again despite his mistake for killing the chinese restaurant owner.

He took Ali to the bank, have Ali cashed the money and then he sent Ali back to Ali's house, and gave his car keys as well as all the proper handover of the Mercedes to Ali. Feeling happy, the driver walked to the nearest bus stand to get a bus home, and while waiting, he opened the sandwich and started eating.... only to bite through quite a bit of sand. With the krap krap krap khorb khun krap sound and the sand hurting his teeth, he threw the sandwich away.

On the other side of the picture, just few hours before, while Ali was selling his last 16th sandwich, his basket handle broke and the sandwiches all rolled on the sandy path of his village. Still determine to earn his money, he decided to cheat by selling the sandy sandwich. While looking for his victim and slowly succumbing by guilt, he saw a beggar, and he decided to just give the sandwich away. Beggars aren't choosy if they're too hungry.

So that's the story of how to be rich. How To Get Rich: Save An Ant and Give Away Your Sandwich.

No comments: