Jaeger-LeCoultre

An ominous text came shortly: “Call me...urgent.”

I called her, and she told me she was with my father, and he was having a heart attack. I told her to call the ambulance. Hurriedly I went to sit for my exams.

As I was doing the exam, I concentrated. I remembered what he wanted of me: “son, don’t worry about me, just finish your degree.” I tried to block out my worries and sadness.

An hour passed and the exam was done. I called her: “let me guess, he died, correct?” 

“Yes...” Her voice trembled as she spoke. She burst out crying. I felt a part of my existence ripped off from me. 

It took me many months to get over his passing.

Well, quite honestly, my dad taught me all he could, in terms of sportsmanship. He was very bad at making money, and lived in poverty for his whole life. 

What he lacked in financials, he won with credentials. Archery was a snobbish sport, and once he showed up in a local contest with a wooden bow. The rich kids mocked at him, but he won the contest. After that incident, they respected him. He went on to represent my country in the SEA games in Manilla, and trained the Royal families of Thailand and Bhutan. 

But he taught me to be true. “Do not cheat, be honest, let them laugh at you, and show them who you are later. Let your handicap be your true strength.”

All through my early life, I was handicapped by poverty - school fees unpaid, being bullied by the rich kids in school, being laughed at for being hyperactive etc. But this poverty was only temporary. 

I’m sure many former members here would have despised me 8 years ago, when I first joined this forum, for liking swiss watches but evidently lacking the funds to buy good pieces. It was evident at the discrimination I faced when poor, but this fueled my relentless pursuit for excellence. “He is just a lowly restaurant manager...not our level.”

Many members in Singapore know me as a maitre D’.I used to manage a famous restaurant in Singapore. Some were gracious to me, some abused me, but I always know to do my best for people. My father thought me that. 

A key hotelier J.Mcbride once made a fool out of me (by the way, he borrowed my reverso to play polo) He invited me to an auction ball to help him, and I told him I will dress well for the event. When I showed up in a tuxedo, he relegated me to wipe wine glasses the whole evening, while he chatted with his foo-foo friends about hotel acquisitions. His words: “don’t you ever imagine you are part of this world, you are not, you will never be, you are here to serve.”I spent the rest of the evening crying in misery, in secret. The resentment lasted for years.

One fine day, a gentleman came to the restaurant. I did not know who he was, but I served him way past my standard hours. As I was clearing up, he called me over: “young man, I watched you from afar. You will become great one day, I can see these unmistakable traits. You remind me of myself when I was young” He gave me his namecard - one of the major franchisors for McDonalds in Australia.

Fast forward 6 years later...I made my Dad very proud to have climbed into the top 1% of the world. “Always be true.” 

Awesome JLC with an even more awesome story!

Look to see more from you!

Ted

Have a good day.

And then, it shows in their rounds or impromtu tests by senior doctors..they stutter, or remain gravely silent. 

I’m not doing extremely well in terms of grades, because I spend the time reading broadly, instead of focusing on the grades as the criteria. Sometimes I gets me down but I wouldn’t do it differently - to shine in grades but lose track of the big picture.

There are real gentleman..you are one of them. There are bullies out there, real big mean bullies who take it out on the weak.

Tomorrow, this time, I will roam the streets of Sydney to donate new clothes and money to the homeless people. This is my prerogative to be. The winters are cold, and there are many out there worth our time.

For if we wake up tomorrow with no memory, we would all just be humans without any notion of property ownership and status.

You have a tangible skill, something that can be touched, felt, appreciated, maybe, that makes you much more “superior” than many others in this forum. Def more than me.

😉😉😉