Virtue Should Be Rewarded

In Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, Outliers (an excellent read which comes with my recommendations), he quotes an old Chinese adage that goes, "No man who can rise before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich." An excellent saying. Hard work is always rewarded. Living in China for half a year now, I realise that opportunities to make money are aplenty. Some people seize them and make it, but many others choose to sit back and cruise by.

There was lady who sells books at a metro station near my old place in Shanghai. There was once I wanted a book rather urgently for a gift. I went looking for her for three consecutive days. But she wasn't there. There was always an excuse. Something cropped up, it was raining so she decided to take the day off and on the third day, she decided to start work late (it was 4pm when I called her). People like that will never lift themselves out of poverty because they are simply not willing to work hard.

Conversely, just tonight, I wanted to buy a soft toy mascot of the Shanghai World Expo 2010. I walked past a makeshift stall in the metro and expressed some interest. The girl manning the stall immediately asked me what I wanted. I asked for the price of the biggest soft toy. 30 yuan, she said. I know for a fact their cost price is probably 2 yuan. So I asked for 10 yuan. I don't mind letting them earn but I never let them rip me off. She refused and offered 15 yuan. I left. She shouted after me, 12 yuan. I insisted on 10 yuan. She declined. I continued walking. Around 100 metres down, I heard someone say, "Give you one." It was the girl, panting because she ran after me, deciding to close the deal after all. I gave her 12 yuan. Virtue should be rewarded. That girl was probably around 15 years old. She probably had to do some math in her head when I offered her 10 yuan. But she finally decided a sale is a sale. Instead of despairing because I was long gone by that time, she ran after me. This young girl will go far. If she gets an education, who knows where she will end up? If she doesn't get an education, her industrious nature will still ensure she will not fall back too far in life.

A lot of people try to get rich the easy way (So many people in China are like that. I really hate this aspect of the Chinese. A lot of them are 贪小便宜). The truth is, there is no easy way. The best example...MLMs. These schemes always promise an opportunity to make lots of money. To join an MLM, you first need to plough in some money to buy the product and then you sell the product and reap profits. You also bring other people into the business - your lower line. You will get a cut from the sales of your lower line. Ultimately who benefits the most from MLMs? Firstly, the people right at the top, they started the business and they keep drawing people into a silly, almost ponzi-like scheme, except that this time, there is a certain product (that usually doesn't work very well) to back it up. Those are smart people and they will make money. I will not discuss my views on their morality here. Secondly, it's the people who work really hard. They plough in the money and they tirelessly sell the product to make their money back. They bring in more and more people so that they have as many lower lines as possible. It is true - MLMs offer very attractive profit-making opportunities. But most people do not even get past the stage whereby they plough in the money, because they don't work hard. Those are the silly people who allow the people at the top to make money for nothing really.

This not only applies to sales. It applies to life in general. Work hard and you will succeed. It's in the bible. A lazy man will starve to death - that's in the bible too! God is fair. He rewards virtue. Hard work and belief in yourself are the two things that are needed for success. Lack of either and you probably won't be as successful as you wish you would be. Lack of both and you deserve to starve to death. Don't blame me. God decided it should be like that. Read the bible.