What is the true meaning of life?

What is the true meaning of life?

All of us do not have a choice in which family you are born into. As you read or watch about the lives of wealthy people, you may be green with envy, wishing that you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. Indeed, it will be a dream to be able to satisfy any of your whims and fancies! Before bemoaning over what you are lacking in life, let us think about what is really important in life.

Read the story of Dr Richard Teo, a 40-year-old millionaire cosmetic surgeon who passed away in 2012 due to Stage 4 lung cancer. He shared with various audience about his life lessons, hoping to help them gain valuable perspectives on what is really valuable in life.

Photo taken from: https://www.inspirationboost.com/dr-richard-teo-keng-siang-thoughts-of-life-wealth-success-happiness/

This is an excerpt of a speech that he gave to a group of students who were in a medical course:

Currently as students, most of you are chasing for academic success so that you can get better opportunities in the future. It might also be common for most people to associate success with wealth. Practically speaking, we all need money to survive. But would you trade health for wealth?

When Dr Richard Teo was a student, he believed in excellence in all aspects of his life.

Images taken from: https://www.facebook.com/pg/InMemoryOfDrRichardTeo/photos/?ref=page_internal

“Since young, I was a typical product of today’s society. A relatively successful product that society requires. From young, I came from a ‘below average’ family. I was told by the media and from people around me that happiness is about success. And that success is about being wealthy. With this mind-set, I was always extremely competitive. Not only did I feel that I needed to go to the top school, I needed to have success in all fields. I participated in uniformed groups, track and almost everything. I needed to get trophies. I needed to be successful, I needed to have Colours award, National Colours award… everything. I went on to medical school and graduated as a doctor. Some of you may know that within the medical faculty, ophthalmology is one of the most highly sought-after specialties. I went after that as well. I was given a traineeship in ophthalmology. I was also given a research scholarship by NUS to develop lasers to treat the eye.

He became what most people would regard as ‘successful’. With his income, he could afford almost anything he desired. There was a constant pursuit of material goods. He led a luxurious and glamourous life – a life most people envy.

“How did I spend my weekends? Typically, I’ll have car club gatherings. With spare cash. I got myself a track car. We’ll go up to Sepang in Malaysia and go for car racing. And it was my life. With other spare cash, what do I do? I got myself a Ferrari.

So, what do I do after getting a car? It’s time to buy a house, to build our own bungalows. We went around looking for a land to build our own bungalows, we went around hunting. So how do I live my life? Well, we all think we have to mix around with the rich and famous. We hung around with the beautiful, rich and famous, spending our lives dining in Michelin-starred restaurants.

I reached a point in life that I got everything for my life. I was at the pinnacle of my career and all.

A sudden turn of events. He had everything, except the time to live.

“I started to develop backache in the middle of nowhere. I thought maybe it was all the heavy squats I was doing. I went to SGH and saw my classmate to do an MRI, to make sure it’s not a slipped disc or anything. And that evening, he called me and said that they found bone marrow replacement in my spine. I could not believe what I heard. I was like, “Are you serious?” I was still running around going to the gym you know. But we had more scans the next day, PET scans – positrons emission scans. They discovered that I actually have stage 4 terminal lung cancer. I was like “Whoa, where did that come from?” It has already spread to the brain, the spine, the liver and the adrenals. And you know one moment I was there, totally thinking that I have everything under control, thinking that I’ve reached the pinnacle of my life. But the next moment, I have just lost it. I was told that even with chemotherapy, that I’ll have about 3- 4 months at most. My world crashed and I went into depression, of course, severe depression. I thought I had everything.”

He says that there is nothing wrong with being rich or wealthy. But in the end, all the material possessions will not give you joy. Learn to love and serve others. Life is not all about yourself.

“See the irony is that all these things that I have, the success, the trophies, my cars, my house and all. I thought that brought me happiness. But I was feeling really down, having severe depression. Having all these thoughts of my possessions, they brought me no joy. The thought of… You know, I can hug my Ferrari to sleep, no… No, it is not going to happen. It brought not a single comfort during my last ten months. And I thought they represented happiness, but they were not true happiness. What really brought me joy in the last ten months was interaction with people, my loved ones, friends, people who genuinely care about me, they laugh and cry with me, and they are able to identify the pain and suffering I was going through.

“Don’t let society tell you how to live. Don’t let the media tell you what you’re supposed to do. Those things happened to me. And I led this life thinking that these are going to bring me happiness. I hope that you will think about it and decide for yourself how you want to live your own life. Not according to what other people tell you to do, and you have to decide whether you want to serve yourself, whether you are going to make a difference in somebody else’s life. Because true happiness doesn’t come from serving yourself. I thought it was but it didn’t turn out that way.”

How has Dr Richard Teo’s story changed your perspective about the true meaning of life?

Inside the lives of the rich kids of Singapore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmwxpFzEx6g (9.53mins)