Lessons From A Beach Bum

We all know the story about the rich and successful man who went to the beach and saw a surfer dude bumming around. He asked the surfer dude to have more aspiration, to get a job, save enough money and then be able to retire...

The surfer dude asked him:" And what am I going to do when I retire?"

"Well, you could sit down at the beach, relax and surf" replied the rich and successful man..

This anecdote always hits me as it reminds me that many times, we can be pursuing the wrong goals in our lives.

We think that money can make us happy and keep looking forward to the future where we think we will be richer and maybe happier.

Alas, the years pass and we are richer but we still do not find ourselves happier.

We analyse the situation and figure out that perhaps we are not RICH enough so we carry on working ourselves to death, trying to keep us with the Jonases and whoever.

I figure that many people realise that after twenty to thirty years of working, they have literally WASTED their entire lives away living up to other people's expectations of them.

This is truly sad but it is extremely real in a society like Singapore.

I guess that there are 2 Key Lessons that we all can learn from the story about the beach bum.

#1 - Treasure the Present

Too many times, we keep thinking about the past and fantasizing about the future while dreading the present. The key to happiness I guess is to learn how to treasure the present.

#2- Get Out of the Rat Race

The race is for rats only. If you are not a rat, please get out of it and spare yourself the miseries of keeping up with the whos who. Seriously, nobody gives two hoots whether you drive a Lexus or a BMW or a Toyota. The people you are trying to impress are busily trying to impress you too so they will hardly notice what car you are driving.


The author of this blog is a well-qualified bum in every sense of the word. He advises you to take everything you read in this blog with a pinch of salt.