Of Father and Son

I read somewhere that people generally are divided into two kinds, Bosses and Workers. This has nothing to do with Kiyosaki’s Cash flow Quadrant, where he states about the four kind of workers: Employees, Self-Employed workers, Business Owners, and Investors. The first statement I took (from a particularly forgettable book) just to make my next paragraphs sounds credible.

I had a sister who will most probably end up to be the first kind, but my father and I are definitely the latter one. As genuine workers, we have a huge trade off for our job and financial security by "losing" our chance to become rich quickly (Unless we win a lottery or something). Dad worked as an employee far in a Celebes remote area for Aneka Tambang, some kind of state owned company.

I remember he wakes up every morning and work long hours each day, and always be a hard and dedicated worker without ever being rich.

“At least we make an honest living Heru”, that’s what my father used to say. Yeah, he is an honest and straight as an arrow person. I’m not really sure if I were to be on his position I wouldn’t take plenty advantages from the perk he had during the 30 long years of work in the company.

I still remember like it was yesterday, my mom used to complain about how things are so expensive and we don’t have anything special in the house like our neighbors who had a nice sofa and kitchen set or their son playing with expensive gadgets.

Dad now is already retired and stay in Makassar, along with his gold wrist watch as a token of appreciation from his former company. Not content with nothing to do all day, he decided to open up a ‘not so convenient store’ in our home.

Using my old room and opening up spaces here and there, the shop was ready to sell anything from shampoo sachets to gallons of mineral water. When I was back at home during the last holidays I watched in tears as my dad while sleepy, patiently dealing with a restless junior customer buying candies with a torn 100 rupiah note.

Watching the store and dealing with the many kind of customers is quite an art. You have to be all smiley and helpful and sometimes content with a few being slightly ignorant. Living in the big cities where ten thousands of rupiah is virtually next to nothing, I used to be a little careless with cash.

Something I picked up during my picket time in the shop is that you really have to learn to appreciate money, because you have to work really hard earning every cents.

There’s a popular belief nowadays (with money being the new god) that employees and self employed workers are the worst position to be in. My father may never get rich working this way, but I’m sure that he is happy and proud of what he achieved in his life. How he managed to provide decent education for his son and daughters and still be there for us whenever we needed him.

It was 1991 when my high school selection process began. He drove me with his motorcycle as far as 230 kilometers all by himself. I also recall the day he was so disappointed when I decided to quit military academy to join my uni, yet he keep his loving support through the years.

Well, I don’t know about Rich Dad and Poor Dad, haven’t read it. But I love my Dad, rich or poor.

For a Good Cause Anyway

An SMS from my youngest cousin got me thinking real hard. She asked whether I can pay some of her college tuition, because her father and mother is now retired and it’s a pity if she would have to quit her school only because of that. I understand what they have been through and if this had come a year earlier I would not have to think twice to help her.

For almost a year now I’ve been giving some amount of money to our office boy, (well probably office aid because he’s much older than me), Mr. Noor, to help him with the education of his two children. It’s not a burden really, I am truthfully and honestly glad that I could help him, and in the process he shows me his son and daughter’s report book each month to actually follow their progress.

They’ve been pretty good at school with several eights and nines in Math and English. Besides, if you meet Pak Noor, he’s this very nice and religious man with plenty of hilarious ideas and a helpful hand. He’s just unlucky that he didn’t have the chance to enjoy decent education like others especially with his wife being sick from time to time. It is not possible to stop helping him now even though he said that he just had a rise this month.

With the oil and gas prices hiking up and without any significant pay rise from my office, I’ve been pretty lucky lately due to several side projects that pay handsomely. But most of them will have to go to the account to pay for our future house. And by purchasing a PDA a while a go (something I needed badly, it’s not an impulse buy or for showing off), the purse string is pretty tight right now. I have some other projects in the pipeline that will due to payment in near future but I cannot count my chicken from the eggs just yet. I’ve been too familiar with clients suddenly goes missing when it’s time to pay up.

Well maybe I just have to learn to live rather more cost effective. Perhaps I will have to skip every breakfast and in the meantime reducing my weight in the process. That would be great, isn’t it? I’ve been doing some sit ups lately and I can hardly see any difference on my belly. In fact this morning in front of the elevator I met Lily, my former classmate and she said how I look fatter than ever. That’s not very flattering. And also especially with the flag price for Taxi in Jakarta is up 30% I will have to lessen the frequency of using taxi too, there’s plenty of motor taxi available near here though, and walking every now and then will always be good for my cholesterol, he he … It’s for a good cause anyway.

Anyway, don’t mind this. It’s only a random musing just to pour it somewhere so that I can actually think clearly. Hopefully side projects will keep on coming my way and conceivably it’s not too late to hope for the oil and gas price return back the way they were right? Or is it?