Thanks to friends, Ein55 students and forum readers for the best wishes of my birthday today. Year 2020 is a special period with pandemic, birth and death are alternating major events in life, worth deeper thoughts for everyone.
Usually I don’t celebrate own Birthday but today I have decided to buy a mini cake (reduced calories), spending the time with family at home. Life is a journey which no one knows when it may come to an end eventually. Therefore, it is important to experience the processes, either happiness or sadness, living without regrets.
Looking back, similar to many others, I have been striving in early part of life to pursue higher education, all the way to PhD (through part-time studies while working full time with 2 children born in the same period). Then, career ladder becomes the next target in life, starting from technical path as a junior engineer to senior engineer, principal engineer, manager, director, VP and even CEO of own company today (engineering consulting & investment education).
However, when I have achieved most goals in life, suddenly I felt emptiness as what were important (money, education / job titles, etc) in the past may not be as important today. So, about 1 decade ago, I have decided to make a change in life.
I started to pursue interests (teaching, investment & science), combining these 3 main interest in a new goal in life through scientific ways of investment education. I “work” (or should I say “enjoy) days and nights, almost non-stop for many years with over 100 sessions yearly (6-day Ein55 courses, monthly coaching, free public workshops, charity courses, graduate gathering, invited talks, investment articles, etc).
Despite I enjoy the current interest (or job or work, depending on how you define it), I know it cannot last forever. About 2 years ago, I experience a health alert with giddiness without knowing the cause. After the thorough tests (including sophisticated MRI), doctor conclusion was I am ok and the “medication” is to have a vacation as he knew that I did not have a long break for nearly 1 year.
Since then, I have started to slow down the pace in my interest / job / work, take it easy (reducing number of classes), let nature take its course. I like the “semi-retirement” type of life style, i.e. not working for money (not main goal of life anymore) but still live actively to experience the second stage of my life.
During the past 5 months of Covid-19 pandemic, there was a big impact to this new normal life. In the past, my main worry was how I could stop teaching one day as there have been so many activities, even I cut down on training courses since 2 years ago, there were still nearly 100 events to conduct yearly.
Many people hate Covid-19 crisis but it helps me to learn further about life, understanding that no one or nothing is indispensable. I had to stay at home for the past 5 months, stopping near 50 events planned earlier as life still goes on. There is no financial burden on me, I could retire directly anytime but when staying at home as “caveman” without meaningful activities (watching TV, listening to music, reading books, etc), I get bored easily. For every new event planned, the results were cancellation (by law, no gathering is allowed), getting worse from Feb to May 2020.
The only thing has no change in life is change itself. So, I start to adjust myself again, learning the online technology which was far away from me, starting to develop series of online courses (mostly are free video investment education, 1-7hr) and writing over 200 investment articles over the past 5 months, you can find all in my blog: www.ein55.com/blog. I hope to share my investment knowledge with readers during the global stock crisis in pandemic, even gathering is not possible.
“Crisis is always an opportunity”, true for stock investment, also true for life. If any friend or reader may be in difficult time now (eg. losing job or having financial constraint), remember that the bad time will be over one day, we just need to go through the winter time before the arrival of spring with new hope. Every correction in life would form a strong support (similar to stock investment) for us to spring up higher. This is proven in my life over the past decades, many “crisis” experienced, adjustment done, life still goes on.
In the past few months of “lock down” (different terms used in each country) period, I also experience the unexpected farewell of a few friends and relatives who leave the world forever, not even able to pay last respect to them. By right, death is part of life, a natural process. However, 2 of the friends are similar age group as me, motivating me to treasure each day as bonus in life, take it easy further, leading a more peaceful life from now on.
人生无常，酸甜苦辣的经验，勾画出一场精彩人生电影，本身是导演与主角。望大家过得开心自在、无憾无悔。
Some may be still working hard to support the family, not able to take a rest even for one day, worrying for the future. For most people, even financial freedom is still a bit far away but you may have other wealth in life, eg. healthy body and a happy family. Treasure what you have while adjusting the pace for other challenges in life. If you have done your best, regardless of the outcome, this is a good show in life without regret.
Finally, wish all the best to all friends, students and readers. Thank you for the friendship and support for so many years, making the “movie” of my life so interesting. There is always light at the end of tunnel. The next episode of life will be more exciting, we won’t be disappointed with a neutral mindset, for both life and investment, just do the right things with our beliefs, following the path aligning with our unique personalities.
Tong Yan (Dr Tee)
