Top of the news today. Last par in front page article on the latest market sell-off.. "We have dealers telling us that their clients are threatening to kill themselves if they are hit by further margin calls," said the risk management head of a local brokerage.
That reminds me of a piece of information from a resident when I dropped by the university hall of residence Raffles Hall yesterday. I was told a PRC student, in Singapore on a scholarship and a Chemical Engineering undergrad, jumped off the top floor, i.e. the 8th floor, of the next door Kuok Foundation Hostel only a few nights earlier. He died.
In our banter, we wondered if exam or study stress drove the undergrad to commit suicide. But then, we thought aloud, if the deceased was a scholar, and so, was presumably above-average smart, how could he have been overcome by academic stress to the extent that he would give up on life???
If his studies were that stressful that it made life seemed not worth living, then why not just give up on the studies? There are many other options in life! I've known of many drop-outs who've made good, and living full and happy lives. Why give up on life and thus on every future possibility?
Today, on reading today's news, I wondered further about the student who gave up on life. Perhaps there's more to the suicide than academic stress. Perhaps, like so many tech and market-savvy, street-wise undergrads nowadays, he might have made some ill-timed moves in the stock market. Perhaps, the sharp selldowns in recent weeks - the consequence of growing fear of an economic downcycle, might have hit him badly.
Yes, perhaps. But even so, why give up on life?
The following thoughts apply to those people referred to in the front-page news article - stock market players who are feeling suicidal because of their hefty losses and mounting debt obligations. Why not pluck up the courage, be brave and face up to the losses, and if necessary, go through the pain and shame of bankruptcy?
Bankruptcy doesn't kill, and thanks to bankruptcy laws recently amended to allow risk-takers a second chance after a financial fall, bankrupts can always make a comeback. A dead man cannot.
Life, to be lived out with the body, spirit and soul that God has so ingeniusly created for us, holds out immense and untoild possibilities, for those who'd treasure that life, be brave in the face of the storms of life and stay alive to fight the good fight another day.
In my business, we always advise people that the most assured way to succeed is to never ever give up.
It's the same in the business of life. Never ever give up, and we will succeed - whatever we choose to do with our lives, one way or another.
