Nuances

Last Saturday, I visited my favorite cafe for lunch. I love the fried rice cakes there, savoury with lots of vegetables, eggs and meat. The owner cum cook is an enterprising and friendly man in his middle forties. While I was enjoying my fare, he came over and we struck up a conversation. I was commenting on his business, which seems to be picking up, judging from the number of people patronising his place. He told me that besides this cafe, which caters for breakfast and lunch, he also runs another barbeque and grilled fish outlet at one of the shopping malls in the evening. Ir's hard work, running two businesses, but he's taking things in stride. He commented that he's no stranger to hard work, having lost his dad when he was only 16 years old. His widowed mother could not afford to send him to school and thereafter, he had to fend for himself working as a restaurant helper, cook and mechanic, often holding onto two jobs at a time to survive. I was impressed by the virtues of hardwork, diligence and long-suffering cultivated through those difficult times including his ability to "eat bitterness" as quoted by the chinese saying. Here is a man who had really gone through the hard knocks of life before emerging successful as he is today. Still, he did not allow himself to rest on his laurels or remain complacent, but continue to work hard to earn a decent, honest living.

Of course, this was not the first rags to riches story that I had read about or encountered. But, after listening to his experiences and fighting spirit to overcome the difficulties and challenges in his life, I could not help but left the cafe with a greater insight and sense of appreciation of hardwork, long-suffering and honesty in real life. Truly, I could draw inspiration from someone, who may not have the priviledge to the "education" and comforts that I enjoyed but move to challenge me in many aspects of my life. I must admit that many a times, I complained and grumbled when I encountered challenges and difficult times in my life. Somehow, I just do not have the courage, resilience and guts to fight on like him. He's an eye-opener, though.