Self employed or businessman?

Sometimes definition can be a bit confusing. Take my case for example, few months ago I met a Prof who embraces 'Kyosaki-like' concept while he was presenting a talk in a seminar somewhere here, preaching and introducing a game similar like the kyosaki's rat- race.

It was kind of interesting and the participants (mostly young Bumi aspiring entrepreneurs) look captivated when come to the topic of money (I was not even one of the participants, just eavesdropping).

During a break we got the chance to chat, me and the professor. At first we discussed around the topic of my multimedia equipments (those are mine) that is being used in the seminar until the conversations got deeper into ideas that are too scholastic for me.

At the end of the break, he popped up a question to me...
Prof - "Hanafi, are you a businessman or self employed?"
Me - "Professor, why did you ask the question?"
Prof - "You are carrying and installing your stuffs yourself, aren’t you?"
I can’t immediately answer as I have to think. Few seconds later, I popped back a question to him...
Me - "Prof, do you think Kyosaki a writer, a businessman, a venture capitalist or self employed?".
To be frank, for me I think what the heck...does it matter?

Yes, perhaps it does matter to some and not to others. Imagine, a traditional entrepreneur with simple mentality such as a dress maker, small time contractor or kuih seller, suddenly bought and obsessed with the concept of 'passive income', I am sure there will be great imbalances of the economic order of the world. Personally I think the concept might be beneficial to some especially those with money but might be depressive to others too. If you notice, nowadays, some of us who can’t even afford to buy a motorcycle have started to talk about potentials on making millions of ringgit. The phenomenon is also rampant with so many 'get rich quick' schemes especially in the internet. I didn’t say that all of them are phony but all of them are capitalizing on the same concept of 'passive income'.

If you scrutinize the game of 'Kyosaki's rat-race' in broader perspective, it’s about wealth obsession not just creation. As for my opinion, life is so much bigger than money. What about compassion to others, humanity and God's blessing? Remember, the destruction of Iraq was partly due to the manipulation of 'gold dinar' from cumulative greedy venture capitalists who see that no part of the world is immune to them. Their investors? Those who fancy ideas like the above (sometimes naive innocent people).

So my dear friends, are we going to just invest to whatever 'highest return' mechanism that can give us to the expense of poor others?

Friends, do not abandon the ideology of working hard and working smart just yet as Allah knows and reward us justly in the forms that we sometimes could never imagine. And please accept my apology if you find my post too offensive.

Well, happy lunch hour.