Life myth: Our national leaders will rescue us

AVE you noticed how a deep sadness is spreading across our land because of the toll this extended string of lockdowns is having on us all?

I recently had a long phone conversation with a friend who has developed a series of structured workshops for teenagers and young adults from his alma mater aimed at inculcating core leadership skills in them.

I was inspired by his commitment to make the world a better place, and honoured when he asked if I would teach his students core financial planning principles through an online webinar.

I said “yes” despite being busy and increasingly leery about accepting additional non-revenue generating work.

There are only so many hours in a day and given the devastating destruction this pandemic has had on income and wealth levels worldwide, I have to focus more time on business rehabilitation, reinvention and pivoting to reposition my company and sole proprietorship to rebuild their cratered revenue and profit levels.

However, my friend’s request struck a chord of hope and optimism in me; as long as regular Malaysians like him keep toiling to improve life for others, our country has a decent future.

CHANGING LANDSCAPE

In our imperfect world, it is too easy for us to keep sipping from the poisoned stream of bad news emanating from every media platform and to thus, lose hope.

But whether tomorrow will be better or worse than today is largely dependent on us because our choices have consequences, and our attitudes are more important than our aptitudes.

Fresh skills can always be learnt. Staying upbeat and hopeful, though, requires genuine effort in these difficult times.

The negative developments gaining momentum in Malaysia, the surging undercurrents of intolerance, racism, blinkered vision, societal polarisation and evaporating levels of English proficiency, have all grown from bad choices made by past (and present) leaders.

By the same token, many of the institutions and much of the infrastructure that still work well in our country, such as our excellent public healthcare system, our Employees Provident Fund (EPF), the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Bursa Malaysia and our breathtaking network of well-maintained highways (at least in Peninsular Malaysia), are all in existence because of wise decisions made by (some) past visionary leaders.

SEIZE THE REINS

Today, as a thick black cloud of anger, doubt, fear and anxiety settles upon the length and breadth of our country, what’s needed is visionary leadership.

Napoleon Bonaparte once declared, “A leader is a dealer in hope”. Well, hope is now in short supply.

Regardless of who we are and where we call home, all of us yearn to be led — or at least gently guided — onto an upward slope to a shinier, happier future.

Bearing that in mind, consider this sage (and obviously translated) old Chinese saying: “Not the cry, but the flight of the wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.” You may wish to reread it a few times.

Earth suffers from a shortage of high-calibre thinking and acting statesmen and stateswomen capable of leading us by example. As social discord mounts in many countries because of cracks, tears and rips in society caused — or possibly revealed — by the Great Virus Crisis (GVC), more and more of us are embracing the mantra of the mature independent individual: If it is to be, it’s up to me!

In the early 19th century, Englishman William Hazlitt built a reputation as a leading philosopher and an outstanding art and literature critic. It was Hazlitt who wrote: “Those who can command themselves command others.”

His 200-year-old sentiment is as relevant to us in 2021 as it was to Hazlitt’s contemporaries, which suggests we would be wise to seize the reins of personal destiny and not wait for any government or charismatic politician to magically rescue us from whatever pot of problems we find ourselves stewing in today.

OF CHOICES AND CONSEQUENCES

Toward that end, for our economic wellbeing, we should take personal charge of our own goals to:

1. Earn more money by working longer hours and taking on more and more part-time work and side gigs to increase our active income;

2. Spend less money by controlling our appetites and sticking to a written budget;

3. Speed up paying off all our debts;

4. Build a sizeable Emergency Buffer Fund (EBF) to help shield us from life’s uncertainties; and,

5. Create multiple streams of passive income from savings and investments to one day utilise as different cash pipelines within an integrated private “pension”.

Each of those five goals grants us a different facet of independence from life’s tumultuous challenges.

Therefore, I recommend you put personalised plans in motion to sequentially achieve all five aspirations (If you’d like some guidance, help yourself to the resources I’ve curated for you at: https://learn.rajendevadason.com).

Just do something; don’t fall prey to analysis paralysis. Remember: Our choices have consequences. Intriguingly, as you get your act together, you’ll be astounded at how many others are drawn to you, and how your standing as a community icon grows, particularly if that’s not your goal.

The whole process will germinate and nurture the latent leader in you — a captain of society others may choose to follow to a bigger, better, brighter future.

Read his free articles at www. FreeCoolArticles.com; he may be connected with on LinkedIn at www. linkedin.com/in/rajendevadason, or via rajen@RajenDevadason.com. You may follow him on Twitter @ RajenDevadason