It’s Just Colored Paper
by Melor Hidayah in People+Organizations | 1 Comment | Add your comment

Share

Part of my work revolves meeting interesting individuals from different industries including businessmen, activists, entrepreneurs, students… everyone from all walks of life. For the Live and Inspire Series, the speaker was Datuk Vinod Sekhar – of The Petra Group. He shared his journey as a businessman.

“ I was a millionaire at 20, multimillionaire at 24, a Datuk at 26, and at 32 almost bankrupt.”

So this man ‘has the mooohhhlah’.  He’s worth RM 150 million – according to Forbes Malaysia’s 40 richest Malaysians (I wanted to write that out but not sure how many zeros – math wasn’t my forte in school).

There is this story which I would like to share.  He views money as a tool. Use it. Invest it in something. Spend it. Donate it. Why keep it in the bank? He then explained why he views it this way.

Datuk Vinod Sekhar’s mother was involved with the spastic center. During school holidays, he would go over there with his mother and play with the kids. He befriended this boy named Philip, who had down syndrome.

Datuk Vinod would put his wallet aside, then go play with the kids. Datuk Vinod started to notice money missing from his wallet. He was angry. He thought, “How could you help people and they steal from you?!”

All riled up, he went to the center to confront the thief. When he arrived at the center, his friend, Philip, told Datuk Vinod that he had a gift for him since Datuk Vinod’s holidays were almost over.

Phillip had made this collage for his new friend. And on this collage you could see money notes cut up into pieces.  Phillip told Datuk Vinod, “I made this for you, I ran out of colored paper so I took some of yours.”

This story that he shared made me laugh, smile and my heart melted at the same time.  A million thoughts were racing through my mind.

To Datuk Vinod, money is just colored paper. A tool.

I thoroughly enjoyed the session. He continued to share his enthusiasm about doing what he loves (work), his passion and his love for his family, wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt and a Mickey mouse watch. Life should not always be too serious. Color and laughter is essential as well.

Copyright © 2010 Live & Inspire Sdn Bhd. Reproduction without explicit permission is prohibited.