Life is short - you're young, you're old, you're dead

Came across this article: Confessions Of A Young Banker - The Day I Snapped, which I believe it is able to relate to everyone, at least 80% or more of human population. 

It is about a real life story of a young adult, Stephen Ridley, who has just graduated in 2010 with Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He has gotten a very decent (well-paid with bright future) banker job in top tier investment bank. Just when you think that his life is gonna stay connected with the banking/ finance world for the rest of his life......

When the rubber band is stretched to its limit, everything changed after 16 months being a routine, depressed, stressful, lifeless banker.

Do read what this ex-banker has to say.

Banking is brutal. I knew this after my internship, but I didn't care. I wanted money. I wanted respect. I wanted to be a somebody in the eyes of myself and others...... Money would make me happy. Right ? Well... not exactly I'm afraid. In fact, money didn't seem to make any of the bankers happy.

Does this sound familiar to you?

The reality of banking is this. Like everyone there, I worked my ass to the bone, working mind numbingly boring work. My life was emails, excel, powerpoint, meetings, endless drafts and markups about shit I couldn't give less of a f**k about, edits, drafts, edits, drafts, edits, send to printers, pick up, courier, meetings, more work, multitasking, boredom, boredom, tired, boredom, avoiding the staffer on a friday, more work, depression, tired, tired, tired, fucking miserable. 15 hour days were a minimum, 16-17 were normal, 20+ were frequent and once or twice a month there would be the dreaded all nighter.....

..... I was constantly tired, constantly stressed, and I had this constant reoccurring thought. The thought went like this. I'm not happy. 

Hmm... Sounded really bad =S

..... thus made me further question why I was spending every waking moment - and half the ones I should have been asleep - devoted to it (refer to his banking work).

I'm sure all of us have this reflection of thought as well.

They (refer to banking people) were just sad middle class bland people, with unexciting lives, and unexciting prospects. A bunch of nerds who got caught up in a cage made of money and dreams and greed, and never got out. There had to be more to life than this.

I had worked hard at university to have a good life, a happy life, a 'successful' life. And I wasn't finding it in IBD. And nobody above me was either. Even the 'baller' MDs were really just miserable, uninteresting, and often pathetic old farts. I didn't want to be them. I wanted to be a colourful, shinny person with love in my heart. Someone with passion, happiness, laughter lines, someone who has taken life by the horns and lived on the edge, taken risks, had love and loss and seen the world.

The author has said it all. That is exactly a vibrant life that everyone dreams of; but most of the time pressure from reality and fear to fail stop us from continue to pursue in our dream.

Kudos to this young men! At such young age, he is able to save himself from the rat race, doing what he enjoys daily - being an artist who makes music in the limelight + travelling around the world.
(Just realised this: What an effective way to promote his music!!)

At the end of the article...

"Life is short - you're young, you're old, you're dead. React to that knowledge. You have nothing to lose!'

Ouch, exactly! It hits the nail on the head.

How about you?
Have you too subconsciously fallen into the trap of "money is everything"?
Are you on the way heading to the direction of life that you really wanted to be?

Hope this sharing inspired you (:


Source: Confessions Of A Young Banker - The Day I Snapped, HITC Business (2012)

Happy Birthday to :-)

Any idea how the smiley/emoticon that you have been using daily being created?

Back then, people were trying to figure out how to represent feelings/mood on the emotionless text. Dated back on September 19, 1982, the sideway smile face :-) was first typed and proposed in a brainstorming discussion board. Beyond expectation, today, this smiley has been widely used on World Wide Web and mobile devices

If you are interested, here is the original Bulletin Board thread in which :-) was proposed.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sef/Orig-Smiley.htm

Lastly, Happy birthday :-)

Xuzhou, China #2

The moment when I've time to log on to FB (bypassing the China connection, of course :P)
This is what caught my attention!

Has anyone tried this Samurai beef burger? Wanna try this when I'm home ^^

Somehow, I think McD back home is healthier food than the rest of the food I consume in China.
In China, I've been having this VERY insecure feeling: I do not know whether what I'm eating is real or fake; what are the ingredients used; are they using processed oil from the drain etc etc.

If you think KL is hazy for few days/weeks/months and you can't breath..

On the way to the production facility...

All I can say is...China is faaarrrrrrrrrr worseeeeeee..The air quality is terrible, horrible and vegetable #$%@#
I feel like I'm inhaling dust particle instead of Oxygen =S
The country development has grown way too far beyond what the Earth can handle; not to mention there is no parallel evolution on the locals' basic mindset regarding the importance of taking care of the environment.  How to survive like this???

Now you understand why I can't wait to go homeeee...

Xuzhou, Jiangsu

It is usually the case for me, when I'm tight up and busy, I feel like blogging =S
Or in a way, just want to take sometime off from work =P

Almost a year ago, I've the thought of blogging about my overseas business trip since the opportunities do not come by often and it'll be a pleasure to share with the rest.
Mind you, it is indeed only a thought.
What an an evidence for 'a thought without action'.
And last month, I had the same thought again, to blog about my trip to New Zealand; by the time I finished uploading photos on FB, I feel lazy again. #ThisIsSoMe

Many might wonder, where am I now. Ta-da!

I'm in a small district, by the name of Xuzhou in Jiangsu.
To visit my company factory in China for the first time after I've joined the company for close to 1.5 years.

Shall blog more about this place the next round.
I should get back to work XD
Chao~