🌱 Borrow the wisdom of others to achieve yourself 🌱

Some people say that there are three lucky things in life: meet with a good teacher at school, a good master at work, and a good partner when you got married.

With what kind of person, you will have what kind of life.

because..

With hard-working people, you will not be lazy.

With positive people, you will not be depressed.

Walk with the wise, you will be extraordinary.

Together with the superior, you can reach the top.

Life is like this. If you want to be with smart people, you have to be smart. You have to be good if you want to be with good people.

Be good at discovering the strengths of others and turning them into your own strengths, you will become a smart person.

Be good at grasping the opportunities of life and turning them into your own opportunities, you will become a great person.

Borrow the wisdom of others, achieve yourself, learn the best from others, and be the best yourself.

Let go 🍃& in Him

What does "Thousand Sails" mean?

People asked me what "Thousand Sails" means, which appears on the right top of my name card. I said: It’s a short form slogan for my company, derived from a famous Chinese idiom. The full form of it in Chinese is 百舸爭流千帆競,乘風破浪正遠航, meaning that hundreds of boats are riding on strong winds and huge waves, rising up thousands of sails and marching towards the set goals. It is a metaphor for people with great ambitions, who are not afraid of hardships and dangers, they overcome all difficulties, and move forward courageously. 

 

"Hundreds of boats competing for stream, 百舸爭流", which describes that hundreds of boats are racing on the sea at the same time. And “Thousands of Sails, 千帆競” is an imaginary sign (with a mean of countless), meaning the sailors are not afraid of hardships and dangers, they move forward bravely. 

The voyage (遠航 in Chinese) refers to long-distance navigation, it means to go far, to have lofty ambitions, and to have lofty ideals.

From Ken Ngan

3 men on the road

There are 3 men in the story, 

The first one who drives $1.5 million Mercedes-Benz and has a bank loan of $12 million. His life is on the verge of life and death!

The second one who drives a $700,000 Toyota and has a mortgage of $2 million. His life is in dire straits!

The third one who rides a motorcycle of $30,000 dollars and has a deposit of $700,000 dollars, but his life is comfortable but at a loss!

Three persons meet on the road. The one who rides the motorcycle is envious of the Toyota, the one who drives the Toyota is envious of the Benz, and the one who drives the Benz envy the one who rides the motorcycle! This is the real society, everyone is a slave to money and destiny!

This world has given you a lot of temptations, but it won't let you get it easily. Even if you get it, there are other distresses. With money, material, fame, and fortune, but got worried afterward.

Just go all out to complete the things in front of you, because life has no "if", only "consequences and results"! Let go of the desire for fame and profit, be brave, and have the patience to follow God's will.

Ken Ngan

Winners keep going

Thomas Edison, who invented the lightbulb, experimented with over thousands of materials for the element inside the bulb. The materials kept failing, and he took fails several years. Most people would quit and say it's impossible. But now there are lightbulbs in every building on earth. 

 

When a plan fails, we become more resolute in finding a solution.

 

Winners keep going.

 

28 July 2020

Retirement Plan in BangKok

Oct 2018

A friend I recognized him at the lobby of my condo in Bangkok, I remember in mid-October 2018 that I came across a Chinese quietly sitting on a sofa and reading a book in a quiet lobby where tenants got no same face and skin as him (Thai is not yellow at all, skin color appears slightly black). I saw him just one there sitting close to the corner of the lobby after I had open the security glass doors to get in. Intentionally I showed him my kindness and asked him of “Are you Chinese? Coming from HK?” in Hong Kong English. The man quickly responded to me with a familiar and pretty lovely language (in Cantonese), “Yes, I am.. I come from Hong Kong”. Great! That was definitely amazing, a majority of people whatever he or she is Hong Kong people or not or perhaps he or she is in any nationality in the world always feel excited to see the one who’s in their place of origin. The man (later known as Mr. T) is a retiree, who undertook a medical-related job in Hong Kong before retirement. This is the year of 2020, Mr. T has been there for nearly two years since he quit his job and retired at 55. T told me that he still enjoys his retirement life in Bangkok. 

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Mr. T bought his first apartment overseas in April 2018, his apartment at 18/F, mine at 12/F purchased in September 2017. In the property orientation and view, we can both look at the swimming pool down from the balcony of ours because of the swimming pool located on the seventh floor in building B while ours in building C which opposites to B with an acute angle. Every morning, I liked having a cup of balcony’s Lipton tea and laying on the Balcony to see the view on which other residents were swimming. 

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Balcony Lipton Tea

I was so grateful and never thought I might meet Mr. T in Bangkok when I came back at that time, 1556 kilometers away from Hong Kong. On the first night, at 19:00 hrs., we gathered in the lobby of building C for our first Thai meal. 

Mr. T took me to many places worth visiting where he knew and wanted to suggest to me. We went out every day starting from the second day to the day before the last day I was in Bangkok (an eight-day trip). 

For a lot of people, achieving early retirement is difficult, particularly they have to have financial independence and freedom from work. I know this lifestyle isn’t for everyone, but Mr. T is now luckily enjoying his gift from heaven. T said his early retirement took years and years of planning, discipline, saving, and investing. Meanwhile, Mr. T and his wife have their own passive income (i.e. rental income, municipal bonds, and interest from savings) to sustain their retirement expenses in Bangkok. Mrs. T (T's wife) will follow her plan to now prepare a retirement for herself, which could happen within three to five years.      

 

I’m glad I’ve got a friend Mr. T, he’s now enjoying there in 1556 kilometers away from Hong Kong. His thoughts inspired me to make a retirement plan according to my own wishes for the next ten years. 

 

Mr. T said: he’s glad because he did. 

I’ll say: I’m going to be happy because I’ve got to get it through my next 10 years.

Happiness in retirement isn't all about how much you have in the bank; it's also about how much you spend, because your spending amount determines how much you need.

Best Rgds