Rockefeller’s advice – 3

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to God, the Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the messengers and messengers of God, Muhammad and the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family and all his companions. From the book of John D. Rockefeller's advice to his son, the nine points. We have seen the first two. First of all, first point was hardship is your greatest teacher. Number two was failure plus persistence equals breakthrough. Third one, he said, love your work or live in misery. Love your work or live in misery. Now, he used to tell this famous story of Christopher Wren, the great architect and builder who was pivotal in rebuilding London. After the great fire of 1666, which involved designing 52 churches and St. Paul's Cathedral. He was an English architect and scientist and mathematician who was known for his work in the English Baroque style. And his legacy is connected to the new look of the city of London. He designed many of the most important structures like the Royal Observatory and the Hampton Port Palace and so on. Now, St. Paul's Cathedral is considered to be his masterpiece. And the design of the cathedral is a prime example of his architectural work and his architectural genius. The story of Christopher Wren goes like this. That he was at the site supervising the work when there were three stone masons who were breaking stones. Sculptors or stone masons who were breaking stones. So he asked them, he said, what are you doing? So the first of them, he said, you know, what can I say? I'm just breaking stones. So it was something like a punishment. This is a painful thing. I mean, why the hell do I have to do this? That kind of a mental attitude. I'm breaking rocks. He asked the second one. He said, I'm earning a living. So he was, you know, a step better than that. So he's not seeing the work as punishment. He's seeing the work as at least getting him some benefit. And he asked the third one, he said, what are you doing? He said, I'm building a cathedral. Now, this is, if you think about this, there's three people doing the same exact work. But one sees it as something which is a punishment. He'd rather not be doing it. The second one sees some meaning in it, but there's not really meaning in the work itself. But in what the work can give him, which is a paycheck at the end of the month or whatever period. But the third one is seeing that work as something which, you know, is a punishment. And he said, I'm doing this. It's a Migration Act, right? The fourth one sees something which reflects himself, which is his legacy to the world. When I was in the Plantations in 1991, 1993, we were planning to leave. And we wanted to, we lived in Kerala or the border of Tamil Nadu Kerala and that place had a beautiful teacote. So we thought we'd, you know, make some household furniture and take it with us. So we sent him back to马 Myanmar and told him that the旨 We asked, we got this carpenter, this Kerala carpenter, very famous for their absolutely fabulous work. So we got this carpenter, he came with an assistant and he told us how much wood we needed and so on. So we got the wood to make a dining set, so a dining table and six chairs. And he gave us a list of materials. So I told him, I said, you know, let me get all the material for you and then you can make, you can do the work. And he was on a daily, per day wage. So I didn't, for whatever reason, I didn't give it to him as a contract work, but I gave it to him on wages. So he was going through this work. Now he, one of the things he gave me was seven grains of sandpaper, his list, seven grains of sandpaper. So I'm thinking to myself, well, this. This is nice. This guy is going to sit around and he's going to be sanding this wood day after day and I'm paying for that. So I, obviously I didn't say that to him, but I said to him, I said, why do you need seven grains of sandpaper? So he looks at me very seriously and he says, you know, he tells me, he says, you know, when somebody looks at this work, I want him to say, wow, who made this? I don't want him to say, hey, who made this? You know, they, they just, the tone, it's same words, who made this? But the tone of it, one is this feeling of, uh, this, this tone, which shows, wow, this is a fabulous piece of work. You know, fantastic. Who's the person who made this? And the other one is, is, is, is, is, is disgusted and say, what kind of work is this? Is this even work? Some carpenter made this? What kind of carpenter is that? Now he's, he, he's taking pride in his work and he's saying, it's only, it's only, uh, incidental that you will own this, uh, that the final product, uh, you know, you will take home. It's only incidental that you're paying me for this, but this is my work. Whether you pay me or not makes no difference. As far as I'm concerned, this is my work and, uh, I will not put something out there which might be a source of embarrassment for me. I will not put something out there where somebody looks at it and says, what kind of work is this? I mean, you know, this guy was a carpenter. What, what kind of, what kind of carpenter makes this work? This issue of taking pride in your work. And that, believe me, that applies to every single thing. Whether you are a carpenter or whether you are a street sweeper or whether you are a rocket scientist or it, the question of what does your work mean to you? Think about this. If you are looking at somebody who's in a full-time job, man or woman, from the time you get your job to the time you retire, you are talking about 40 to 45 years. Let's say you start working your first job at age 20. Usually, I, I started working at age 18. Uh, so I were two, uh, you know, two years, uh, lead on that. Uh, so most people will start around 18 or so, 18, 19. Yeah. Maybe 20. Um, and then say you retire at 65. So 20 to 65 is 45 years. Um, given, given lifespans, you are talking about almost three quarters of your lifespan. Almost three quarters of your lifespan is going to go in something called work. Now, if that work that you do is something which is, uh, it's a drudgery, it's something you see. It's a pain. It's something that you would rather not do. You know, you have these, uh, bumper stickers. I would rather be fishing. I would rather be golfing. My point is, if you, if you would rather be fishing, why are you not fishing? Why have you not made fishing into your work? If you would rather be golfing, why are you not a professional golfer or at least a caddy? I mean, you know, not everybody can be a professional golfer. Go be a caddy. It doesn't matter. You may not, you may not earn as much money as you want. You may not make as much money as you, as you're earning today, where the money you're earning today enables you to do what you call work, which you find really painful for six days a week. And on the seventh day, you get to play golf. If you do, I mean, most people will not play golf, uh, every, every week, but even if you do, right, rather than be a caddy, you love golf. You would rather be golfing, be a caddy and do that seven days a week. Maybe you don't make that much money. Okay. But your life is, is being spent doing something which you consider to be worthwhile, to be worthwhile. I'm just giving you one example. But my point is seriously ask yourself this question. If you are, if you are doing something which is not giving you joy, if you are doing something which you would not pay to do, my, my criterion for myself has always been this. Whatever I'm doing, will I do it for free? The answer is yes. That is still not enough. Will I do it for free? I pay to do that. And if the answer is yes, then I do that. So Alhamdulillah, I am able to do my work. I enjoy it. I thoroughly enjoy it. I would rather not be doing anything else. I would rather be doing what I'm already doing, which means that I am living a life which is Mashallah, Alhamdulillah. Uh, it is something which is, uh, you know, I'm very happy with what Allah has given me. So if you are not doing that, then ask yourself why? Because it is very strong. It is very stupid to live where you are spending three quarters of your life, uh, and the most productive part of your life, where you have the maximum energy, maximum, all your faculties are functioning well, and so on and so forth. Uh, after you retire, so-called retire, that's why the retirement is such an idiotic thing because you, you end up doing what? And many statistics that I have read say that. Uh, most people who are in a full-time job, uh, die within two years of retirement because they have this complete sense of worthlessness because what they were doing has just been taken away from them. Now that you did that to yourself because you insisted on doing something which, uh, had no value, which you didn't, didn't even enjoy. So you are going to put away, put in, in some, you know, bucket or something, uh, your bucket list of the things that you would want to do. Uh, I want to do this. I want to do this, this, this, and all of that is so-called entertainment. If instead of that, if you choose wisely and you choose the thing that you want to do, which you love to do, and you, and you love doing that, then you are not working anymore. You are enjoying yourself. You are thoroughly. And there, that is where your creative abilities, your inventive abilities, uh, you know, the way to make the thing better and more productive and so forth. All of this comes into the fore. Uh, in, uh, comes into its, uh, in, in, uh, to the fore, uh, and into a strength because you are doing something which you love. So my advice to myself and you is choose something which you love to do. Alhamdulillah, I have already done that. I did that decades ago. Choose something which you love to do and do that to the best of your ability. Forget everybody else.