What would you do if you won the lottery this year, 2025?

Let’s start with a story about Pablo, a 40-year-old plumber, who had been doing his job for the last 15 years.

Wearing his overall uniform, Pablo set off for work every day, frequenting houses, schools, markets, and public facilities to fix or replace pipes. Sometimes, he was called to repair sinks and toilets too. As
you can imagine, he was not always the tidiest-looking person in town.

One day, Pablo won the lottery. He went home much wealthier but kept the good news to himself. He didn’t tell his family. The next day, he turned up for work as usual. But then he thought to himself, “I’ve been working hard for years, but now I need to enjoy life. I need to change. I want to be important!”

Pablo set off to an expensive barber shop, where he had a haircut and a good shave before treating himself to a luxurious massage and spa. He bought a nice pair of pants, matching them with a suit and a colourful tie. He copped a nice sports car. He dined in a classy restaurant. All for himself. He had a complete transformation.

If we try to attain something to change, for the selfish
desire to become important and recognised, we lose
focus on the people we love and those who love us, and
our view of life becomes thinner and self-centred

– Ron

As he walked down the street thinking about how he could pamper himself more and surprise everyone with his new look, a fast automobile suddenly emerged and hit Pablo. Boom!!!

He woke up in a hospital 2 days later with a broken hip bone and a leg in cast.

Pablo asked himself, “I’ve been a good man all my life, I was always the same Pablo, the poor plumber. Yet this happened to me when I had this chance to be different and important. How come no one protected me?”

Then he heard a voice in his head: “Pablo, we sent someone to find and
protect you, but they didn’t recognise you. You had changed and you were keeping the good things to yourself just to feel important.”

Pablo’s story is, of course, just an in-the-clouds fictional account; it is only meant to amuse us and teach us life lessons.

However, there’s probably a good chance that some of us would have done the same thing if we experienced the same sudden exuberant level of change in our lives, like winning the lottery.

If we only plan for ourselves, we will embrace changes that only desire to
benefit our selfish selves. And all we want to happen is to feel very important.

Recently in Mongkok, while having a meal at Café De Coral, I sat with a stranger, a woman in her mid-40s. We chatted; she sounded sad and condescending. “I’m a failure in this world. I don’t feel people treat me as important,” she said. “If I can win something, I’ll make myself recognised and become important.”

In a lightsome strive to make her feel better – or at least make her smile – I replied, “Well, on the first one, you’re wrong, you’re not a failure. Everyone fails but no one is a failure. On the second, that’s perhaps true; you may not feel important, but that’s not important. The important thing in life is knowing who we are, not how we feel others think of us.”

Then she cried (loudly!). Almost everyone in the café looked at me judgingly, probably thinking I made her sob. After calming down, the lady said she had wasted years treating herself as a failure, and now realised she should stop trying to be important to feel happy.

So there, it wasn’t my fault that she cried. In fact, I made her discern something of value (naks!). If we try to attain something to change, for the selfish desire to become important and recognised, we lose focus
on the people we love and those who love us, and our view of life becomes thinner and self-centred.

Trying to win something – whether it be the lottery, a beauty contest or the squid game (don’t ever try this!) – or trying to achieve a goal to be successful could be a noble objective, but it becomes disruptive and senseless when it is an obsession to obscure who we truly are. It should not be a tool to attempt to become someone we are not.

I like how Thomas Jefferson (the 3rd President of the United States) states his thoughts about how we should be delighted in life:

“Our greatest happiness does not depend on the
condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the
result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.”

– Ron

Indeed! And it’s very plausible and convincing. Happiness is a decision to make; it is not a condition in life. I am, of course, not belittling the sacrifices and altruism of many people (including the OFWs and Migrant Workers) who, for the sake of their loved ones and families, have temporarily kept their perceived happiness (perceived because their
thoughts matter on how they see joy in life) in the box so that others can have theirs.

What is being emphasised here is that true happiness is not so stark, so you should not make it equivalent to winning something and becoming (or feeling) important. Happiness is not identical to recognition.

Happiness is understanding your dreams in life, knowing your roles and your goals, knowing and accepting who you are, and knowing that the person sitting next to you in the MTR, on a bus, at a restaurant,
or in a toilet (on separate bowls in separate cubicles, of course!), is just as important as you are because they have their own designated capacity and role to play on this planet, just like you do.

So smile, don’t worry, be happy – a decision you must make – even though oftentimes, the only one who thinks you are a winner and important is the person in the mirror looking you straight in the eyes. And that’s you.