Motivations & my greatest achievement

Hi friends,

Recently, I was asked why I was working so hard in researching, understanding and trying to earn money. When that particular close friend of mine asked that, I was genuinely surprised. All along, I have fallen into this habit of working hard in everything that I do, I forgot about the reasons why I worked so hard for.

Now, it’s time for you to find out why; this is gonna be a personal post where I will recount my life experience (kinda short, kinda uninteresting and kinda extreme). But I hope that the struggles that I face in life can motivate you to grit your teeth and hustle hard.

So some context in my situation:
1. My parents divorced and I have been living with my aunt since I was in primary school.
2. My parents are blue-collared workers and have their own respective families after the divorced.
3. My whole family is really big, with 9 aunties and uncles and none of them are well to do. We are struggling most of the time.

I shall be naming the greatest challenges that I face, what age that I face them in, the actions that I have done to solve/mitigate these challenges and whether these challenges are solved:
1. After finishing JC, I went into NS, that was when my dad told me that he is unable to pay for my university education and that I would have to settle it myself. (I was just 18, heading into what I perceived then as “2 years of hell”. Yet, I have to pay for this mountain-sized debt that is my university education and settle my living expenses for the 4 years. My brief estimation was SGD56K.)
2. My dad decides to give me 2 baby sisters in 2 separate occasions of my life - with 2 different women that is not my Mother (I was 12 and I was 23 when my 2 sisters were born. The idea that I have to take responsibility for the actions of my Father almost sent me into insanity. Why am I tied down by such problems?)

The actions that I took:
1. I managed to save up a decent amount of money from my NS experience (about SGD$15K), after my NS was over, I took on 3-4 jobs in the period between Jan to August. During this period, I actually saved another SGD$6-7K. I also continued to apply for any scholarships that would remotely want me.
2. Right now, I am taking on 3 jobs as I am studying for my degree. This is so that I can have as much of a financial buffer before I graduate. I am really scared that my dad would assume that I would support him and his family when I graduate. I am so affected by this thought that I would wake up covered in cold sweat in the middle of the night.

Current state:
1. I received a scholarship that pays for the full duration for my course of study and gave me the opportunity of going for an overseas exchange - a luxury that i would’ve never dreamt of. Effectively, my education worries has been fixed
2. From my jobs, I have an average income of SGD$700, I am also in my internship, which gives me more money for my buffer. I have managed to accumulate a sizeable amount of money through the jobs that I have done in these 3 years.

This is where a lot of people would question me as I already have my education taken care of, why would I need to hustle so hard? FOR MY FAMILY. I AM UTTERLY TERRIFIED ABOUT WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO MY FAMILY. WHAT IF I NEED TO PROVIDE FOR ALL OF THEM?

Because of my family, I cannot fail. I can’t afford to fall into complacency. I must plan my finances. I hope to be a carefree university student where my only worry is my academics or which club I want to go on Wednesday and the weekends. But I can’t, this is a luxury that I simply cannot afford.

So yes, in spite of the success/achievements that I have received, I am still in a desperate situation to earn as much money as possible. This is where I have to say that the greatest achievement that I have is that I am able to obtain all these money and experiences in spite of the cards that life dealt at me. I have every possible reason to fail and be irresponsible. But no, I took charge of my life and with quite a bit of elbow grease, I attempt to compete and outperform those that have every reason for success.

Of course, I can’t achieve all these without the help from my friends and family that have supported me. I hope that my story can be a testimony to all of you who are working hard. Keep going, you are doing great. If you ever feel like giving up, let me be an example to you that your effort would be rewarded at the end of the day. People would look at you and realise this difference in you that is not in others and give you opportunities for it.

I will not stop working hard, no matter how successful I may become in the future. I want to have so much money that I can provide for students like me, who is trying to improve his situation. I want to give them an equity for them to achieve the maximum potential of their lives and not be denied of any opportunities because of the cards that life dealt them.

With that, I thank you for reading this, for me to type out in words my motivations for my hard work and for allowing me to set a concrete goal for me in the future.

Stay vested, stay frugal, stay hungry
My friends.

Dionysius