Wednesday, October 24, 2007

The King and I

The late Lim Goh Tong was quite a guy. At the age of 19, the young Lim came to the then Malaya from China. He had practically nothing to his name. A very hard-working and enterprising chap, he ventured into business at a young age. In the late sixties, he founded Genting Berhad, which was granted a casino licence — the only one granted by the Federal Government. He was later known as the Casino King. Yesterday, upon his death at the age of 90, he was worth billions — quite an achievement, really!

And I — what have I achieved? Well, not much! When I was still a teenager, I had a lot of dreams — I mean other than the wet ones. And now in my early forties, I have barely achieved half of them. But I continue to be inspired by people like the Casino King.

If I worked hard (and smart) I might have a shot at becoming a billionaire in about half a century's time when I'm 90. Sadly, however, at the rate that I'm going now, it seems quite impossible to reach that far — both physically and financially.

But thank you, the Casino King, for the inspiration that you have given us. I will strive to go the full distance.

And to those good people in the Federal Government, I could use a casino licence too.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

And even in death, the Casino King continues to encourage people to part with their money. I hear numbers like 1918, 2802 and 2310 were sold out at all establishments today!

Cornelius said...

Ah, that shouldn't come as a surprise, 2R1I. When it comes to gambling, no one is poor!

I always question my step-mother about how she'd try so hard to bargain for a further 50 sen discount when she buys vegetables; but when she buys the 4D tickets, she's pay willingly without any complaint.

If I am granted a casino licence, that can help substantially in achieving my billions by the time I am 90.

gracec said...

I have been reading and finally, I have decided to put what I think.... the King & I, yes, he may be the King and with due respect, I have to admit that I do admire him from far.....his dreams.....and all his achievements when he was on earth...NOW that he is gone and today.... the earthly funeral with 30 private companies to arrange the unimaginable procession for him... must be damned unique.... alas, when he finally reach THERE, let me tell you all, all who have gone before him, all who have gone earlier because of him... all who were forced to go before him and because of his gambling empire, all who have left their loved one on earth to suffer because of him...so much more.... are waiting for him.....after so long... 90 or 93..... even this have costed so much more to part with their monies... only 14 won 2.4m..... ahem.... guess he will have mixed feeling to go there as well......

Cornelius said...

grace, would you think differently if you're granted that casino licence; and you're the one making those billions?

Humans are like that, you know. Opinions may differ depending on which point of view you're looking at the situation from.

I've always wondered, it's in our nature to blame somebody else when something bad happens. I said so in my thread entitled "The art of finger-pointing".

Nobody forced these people to gamble their lives away. They did so at their own peril. I bet if they won and became millionaires, they wouldn't have complained, huh? Had you bought 3909, I think you wouldn't have complained too.

It's up to you to decide what's best for yourself. Unless of course we're not given a choice to decide — you know, for example how RM100 million was spent on a space tourist? Imagine if those money were spent on, say, bullet-proof vests, who knows, maybe Jayabalan and his friend might still be alive today?

And by the way, what the hell are we doing communicating this way, when we can simply talk to each other face-to-face? And then if you can agree with me, I might even give you a raise. No, you don't want? OK, I withdraw the offer! Phew... that was close!