25. BEING SIGNIFICANT
“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” -- Nelson Mandela
So, what is the purpose of life? Is it to be happy? Is that all? Or is there something else?
If you are a philosophical person, you may ask yourself these questions: "Why on earth am I here for?" or "What's the purpose of my life?"
Yes, why on earth are we here for?
Have you ever thought about it?
Is your life all about going to school, graduating from college, getting a job, starting a family, buying the first house, working hard for the next thirty to forty years, and retiring to enjoy life?
Success vs significance
When you have achieved all the above, are you considered a successful person?
Most people don't think too hard about these ponding questions. Most people prefer to live life as how the life cycle is. Most people prefer to chase after success in life rather than seek significance in life.
What’s success?
What’s significance?
According to author John Maxwell, “Success is when I add value to myself. Significance is when I add value to others.”
Another author D. Trinidad Hunt said, “Success is winning. Significance is helping others win. Success leaves a fingerprint on creation while significance leaves a footprint on the soul.”
Being significant by adding values to other, by blessing others
If you are some of those who want to leave behind a lasting impact or legacy in this world, you can consider committing the rest of your life to a cause you are passionate about. You can contribute your time, knowledge, experience, expertise, network and/or money to this greater cause.
If you do this, you are definitely making your own life very significant. You are adding values to others’ lives in a big impactful way. You are leaving footprint on many souls.
Jack Ma of Alibaba Group retired early at the age of 55 on September 10, 2019. He said he has spent 10 years preparing for his retirement. Now he has more time to focus on educational work, philanthropy, and environmental causes. It's Jack Ma's passion, especially educational work.
I guess we know that Jack Ma used to be an English teacher. He wants the whole of China and the world to be educated. Education is the way out of poverty. He is living a life greater than himself.
How about Bill Gates? He did the same recently in 2020. He stepped down from both of the public boards on which he served - Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway. He wants to dedicate more time to philanthropic priorities including global health and development, education, and his increasing engagement in tackling climate change.
Through Gates Foundation, Bill Gates is also planning to spend billions of US dollars to build factories to manufacture seven covid-19 vaccines, despite knowing that only one will work. At the end of the day, he may only choose one from the seven, burning billions of US dollars along the way rushing for time for an effective covid-19 vaccine.
In his own words, Bill Gates says, "It will cost money but it will save time. Right now, time is against us." Bill Gates even pointed out that a few billion U.S. dollars now can prevent a few trillion U.S. dollars in economic disaster later due to a prolonged covid-19 outbreak. Bill Gates is prepared to burn his money to save mankind.
Have you heard of Toms Shoes? The founder Blake Mycoskie commits to give a pair of sandals to every shoeless person in Africa for every pair of Toms shoes sold.
Twitter and Square co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey is worth USD 4.9 billion, according to Forbes. But the 43-year-old college drop-out says he plans to give away all of his money within his lifetime to worthy causes. Why?
“I live by the principle of everything is connected, so if someone is in pain, I’m in pain, ultimately, over time. I want to make sure that I'm doing whatever I can in my lifetime to help that through my companies' works, through my own personal giving. I want to give out all my money in my lifetime. I want to see the impacts, selfishly, in my lifetime. I want to make sure that we're helping people.” Dorsey told universal basic income advocate Andrew Yang.
Miranda Gibson, an environmental activist and school teacher from Australia, protested illegal logging by climbing a tree in Tasmania and living there for 449 days, the longest running tree sit in Australian history. more than a year.
Scott Harrison, who founded the non-profit organisation Charity: water, has given 8 million people around the world access to clean water by funding nearly 30,000 water projects in 26 countries across the world since 2006.
Mania Sivasubramanian created a foundation that offers healthcare access to low-income children in India.
Stephanie Zito gave $10 U.S. dollars every day to a different non-profit organisation for a year.
Closer to home, my friend’s bro-in-law is a cancer survivor living in Johor. He has dedicated the rest of his life fully committed to help the poor and the needy through an non-profit organisation that he. He sees beyond his own inequities and illness. He puts the needs of the poor and the needy before his own needs. Recently, he has been raising funds to buy essential food for those who lost their income due to covid-19 pandemic in Johor.
A few of my friends have been sponsoring under privileged children to overcome extreme poverty through World Vision’s “Sponsor a child” program. They have also made several trips to visit their sponsored children in Thailand, Cambodia and India.
Some volunteer to be teachers for orphans at orphanage homes.
Some volunteer to clean up at SPCA, an animal welfare organisation to protect defenceless animals and to alleviate their sufferings.
A Malaysian blogger has been advocating rubbish-free, plastic-free living through her Facebook page and local events.
No matter how big or small – whether in terms of monetary contribution or purely as volunteers - they are all moving from success to significance by adding values to others and blessing others.
How you can be significant to others: activism
In earlier chapter, one of the categories that I have recommended to undertake as one of your quests is activism. Activity simply means action to bring about political or social change. Such causes can be related to education, environment, poverty, drug abuse, unemployment, animal abuse, etc.
During your working life, you can commit yourself to a cause close to your heart. If you work in medical profession, you are already doing something very noble and meaningful while at work.
But for many others, something close to their heart may not be what they are doing daily at work. They can hardly allocate anytime to something so dear to them. May be some are thinking of spending more time with the poor and needy. But they just can’t find the time out of all the busyness at work and life.
The wonderful news is: after your early retirement, you have your lifetime freedom to think about causes that are close to your heart. You have more time to contribute and get involved.
You can impart your knowledge, experience to people within your social network.
You can be a motivator, counsellor and encourager to others who can learn from your past experiences.
You can contribute through donations based on your own capability.
You can also offer your time to be a counsellor at Befrienders, a mental health service centre.
You can provide free tuition to the children in orphanage homes. You can take care of the elder in old folks homes for free.
You can help in donation campaign for stroke patients.
You can be a volunteer to help improve the quality of the life of those with life-limiting illness (cancer, organ failure, neurological conditions, etc).
You can feed the poor and needy, and build water pipes or houses for them in some poor villages.
Life won't last forever. You and I will die one day. Adding values to others can help us live a significant life.
How you can be significant to others: relational
How do you want people to remember you? You are never too young to think about your legacy.
If you are used to focusing on money and career all of your life, you shall switch your focus from bank account to the people around you after retirement.
Rather than worrying about how you can make more profits from the stock markets, you shall spend that energy and time focusing on your children, your parents, your partners, your friends, your neighbours, or the disadvantaged in your community.
You don’t need to have a cause. You don’t need to be an activist.
All you need to do is to focus on relational (another category that you can undertake as one of your quests which I mentioned in earlier chapter).
All you need to do is to focus on blessing others around you.
Being significant to my 96 year-old dad
Personally, I let go of financial success and a successful career to be at home with my ageing dad.
I start with one – the most important one in my whole life right now – my 96-year-old dad.
I want to be significant to him.
His time is running out. He may not have the time to wait until I retire at age 60 to spend more time with him. Therefore, I've chosen to walk away from financial success and all the fancy titles and be a caregiver to an old dying man who happens to be my own dad.
But I'm very happy for being able to make him happy. I’m very happy for being able to make a difference to the quality of his life during his winter years.
Afterall, what late American humourist Leo Rosten said is correct, “I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all."
Start with one
Yes indeed.
To begin, you can always start with one solitary person.
To begin, you can always bless one person at a time.
To begin, you can always be significant to one person at a time.
You can always start with your own family members, then slowly expand to your friends, neighbours and others.
Once you retire, it's no longer about your financial success. It's no longer about big title of your position.
As what Nelson Mandela said, “What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.”
It's about being significant, making an impact and a difference to other people's lives.
Being significant will always outlast all of your career and financial successes. It satisfies your deepest heart and soul once you become significant to others. It allows you to lay your head on your pillow at night peacefully knowing that you’ve just made a difference to a person’s life.
SECTION 5
Life after Retirement:
Health, Happiness, Gratitude, Being Significant
“If you have health, you probably will be happy. And if you have health and happiness, you have all the wealth you need, even if it’s not all you want." -- Elbert Hubbard
F I L L
Financial Independence, Live Life
achieving financial independence from 9-to-5 job before 50
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