2-3-4 Friday

‘Seeking to spark the most potential within you per word of any online newsletter’

1 thought

When you don’t feel financially stable, you are forced into some hard choices. I want to share some of those. Not so that you can pity me, but so that I can make the case for why replicating those conditions can sometimes be useful. 

 

I haven’t eaten out for 18 months. Each time I go out with my friends, I’ve to tell them that I’m bringing my own food so that I can save money. Sometimes I’ve skipped going out with them because I don’t want to be caught in another embarrassing situation where I’m seated at a restaurant, looking at the menu, and thinking, 

I can’t afford this. 

 

Singapore is a food paradise. And over the past few months, whenever I walk past restaurants, I peer longingly into the restaurant. I see people queue up for the food they would not hesitate to pay $20, $30, for. I watch people place tantalising food in their mouths. And sometimes I even wish I could eat their leftovers. 

You may say this is desperate, but this is true. 

 

When I was younger, I remembered this old man who once went around with a plastic bag around the food centre, asking people if he could put their leftovers in his plastic bag for his dog. Later, I asked my dad what was happening. He placed a hand around my shoulder and said gently, 

Well, he’s the dog he’s collecting food for. 

 

It was that memory that led me to see how being poor is not nice, but it’s a necessary condition for human thriving. 

 

Because when you have your backs to the wall, you’re forced to act. You’re forced to make something happen. There’s no more procrastination. Because comfort keeps us procrastinating. 

 

There’s a strange liberation that comes when you have to choose between food for a day or food for a week. What I mean is this. Over the past few months, I’ve not eaten out because the money I spend in a restaurant can feed me for a week. $15 can buy me a main course in the restaurant, or: 

1. 14 cans of baked beans 
2. 7 loaves of bread 
3. 2 whole chickens 

And when you’re forced into a position like that, you have to make something work. 

1 talk

Being poor, can be strangely liberating. It reminds you that even when you have little money, you still have your skills. And it forces you to use those skills to earn money. 

 

When you experience little, you realise you have little to lose, even if you fail. 

1 tip 

For a single week, eat nothing but baked beans and rice. When you do that, you can start to realise your baselines. That however bad your mistakes are, it will never go beyond this. Beans on toast. Beans with rice. Beans in cans. 

 

It reminds you that it’s okay to fail. 

 

And there’s great liberation in that. 

 

John

Live Young, Live Well - Work Your Love