Blog@GraceJunction

The young India is already behaving in a very different way than their parents. They are earning younger, and working in myriad “new age” professions e.g. dance and fitness instructors, radio and TV jockeys, adventure tourism, cooking, grooming, gaming, modeling, acting, counseling besides, of course, retail and IT and other emerging sectors. They are making good money too.

More and more of them are becoming millionaires and the age they reach there is coming down too. The IT sector especially is offering almost double the salary than any other stream and the growth too is about 20% per annum, which is again higher than any other stream. Every mother is now looking for a software professional for her daughter! These class, who were considered to be geeks and nerds and not exactly – the marriage material, are now the most sought after lot. Money, and big money at that, is causing major social and cultural shifts.

Also, encouraged by rising incomes and rapid economic growth, Indians are shedding their traditional propensity to skimp and save, and a well-known aversion to credit. They are now splurging on everything from beauty products and fancy clothes to luxury homes! This in turn is inspiring more and more youngsters to dream bigger. Now they are aspiring not just to become millionaires, but billionaires.

I have been there - thought that. When I was doing by business administration, I talked about it, dreamt about it, and worked towards it. But somewhere down the line, I purposely shed that killer instinct to become rich and instead settled down for what God would provide. There certainly have been some pressing times when I thought that I should have moved to the USA as per my original plans. But then, what for? As I was thinking all this and much more, this young guy who I had met a few years back walked in into the Soul Café!

Me: Hey Matt. It’s been a long time. You have really grown tall and big. It took a while for me to recognize you. What have you been eating?

Matt: Hello uncle. Good to see you. Hey, it’s not just eating, but proper training. I eat well, and then I go jogging, I play all kinds of sport and then I also do specified exercises at the gym. All this has toned my body well and also helped my height.

Me: Yes, I see it. You have grown taller than anyone else in your entire family. When do you get time for all these?

Matt: If you want to become someone, you have to find out time. Now is the time I got to work the hardest. Whatever I do now will decide my future. It will decide my future health, my future profession, my future earnings, everything. So I am very careful and find time to do what I know that I need to do now.

Me: That’s good to hear. Rarely have I come across youngsters like you, so focused when they are still very young.

Matt: I don’t know how you haven’t come across people like me. In fact I am surrounded by them. They are everywhere. The new breed is more serious about life than the ones before them. In fact, I derive inspiration from them and get challenged. So many of them have achieved so much in such a young age!

Me: Yes. Millionaires are now dime a dozen.

Matt: Yeah. True. That’s why I am now working harder for the next stage. Billionaire!

Me: Good. In our circle, there are hardly any billionaires. But do you think that by being employed at some place can make you a billionaire?

Matt: It is possible. But then one has got to be that much a genius. One has to become truly indispensable and has to churn out miracles frequently to become a billionaire that way. I will have to start up my own entity. I and a few of my friends are already working on it.

Me: Oh great. So a couple of you are dreaming this dream together.

Matt: Being a team brings in synergies that will help a big way in the competitive environment. The field that I am in, IT, is global and I will have to fight for the pie with the Chinese and the Brazilians! Moreover when we are a team, each of us comes in with our strengths thus giving room for us to remain focused on our core competencies and deliver our best.

Me: So it seems you have already charted your ten year plan.

Matt: No. In our field that is not possible. Theoretically yes, but then too many changes keep happening especially in the hardware and all of it cannot be factored in too much ahead of time and so a plan for three years is decent enough. Sometimes the changes in the hardware and the technology are so paradigm, that a lot of things changes.

Me: Can you give me an example.

Matt: Like, have you heard about a device that could output smells?

Me: What? What is that?

Matt: Experts are working on a device that works like a printer. Very soon man will be able to smell what he sees on the screen. A few basic odors will be mixed to form the smell of what you see on the screen!

Me: And then pretty soon we will be able to touch too!?

Matt: Yes and a lot more. This would mean a lot changes to the already existing coding and programming et cetera. And so much is happening that it is difficult to predict what will happen next. Also then there is a factor of market acceptability. Some technology may appear very promising in the print but then it may never kick off in the market place. So, you see, the real scene is much more complex.

Me: But then you would have made some predictions about your earnings. You would surely be having some expectations.

Matt: Again, the predictions can be way too off the mark but yes I have thought about it. In the next couple of years, I would like to buy my own car, a Honda Accord. And not much later, I will have my own SUV.

Me: So you will not be going for a “Super” Bike?

Matt: I would have loved to but then I would not have time to use it the way it is supposed to be used. Maybe a little later when I am more settled. I mean, vehicles are not the only thing on my mind.

Me: Hmm Hmmm. So tell me if you don’t mind?

Matt: Well, in five years I will have my own house and I am surely not going for an apartment. I would surely go in for a villa with lots of space around.

Me: That’s going to cost you dearly.

Matt: So what. I will have worked hard for it and therefore, won’t I deserve it? There is this one life that too lasts only for a couple of decades. A very little time, we humans have at hand. I believe in making the most of it and living like a king instead of saving it all for my post retirement when either I maybe long gone or may not have the strength or the will to enjoy it.

Me: What else have you planned to buy?

Matt: A big house needs a lot of things and then a lot of maintenance too. So I will surely provide for it too. And then, I can not be buying all the time. I will make my investments into equity and debt and other avenues. REIT and Commodities are going to be big time in the coming future. Though I don’t understand much about them right now, I would surely like to know more and make my own informed decisions on my investments into them.

Me: Have you provided for a marriage in the middle of all this?

Matt: What a question? What’s life without a wife? Of course, much of my hard work will be for my family too. I have dreams for them and then for my children too.

Me: Oh good. The new breed of technocrats prefers alternative lifestyles over the commitment of marriage.

Matt: I have attended enough Sunday School to have those areas clearly defined. Moreover, my parents have a say in my life too. I would surely involve them in the decision of marriage.

Me: So you have decided where all your parents figure and where they don’t.

Matt: It’s not like that. But yes, I will surely involve them in as much as I can. I just hope that things go on well. We already are in talks with some people outside the country for a pilot project. If things work out, our plans will roll out.

Me: What about inflation and unprecedented movements of currency exchanges and then sudden spurt in prices of utilities and other essential products. I mean, a few months ago, the fall of the dollar against the rupee made our exports less competitive and now the prices of crude have increased the prices of everything on this earth.

Matt: Prices of Crude will not have immediate impact but if it remains high, surely. Exchanges prices surely have a bearing. Then again, if we keep thinking like that, we will never be able to do anything. I mean, doesn’t the Bible say that he is a fool who waits for the winds and the rain to sow the seed!

Me: The Bible! Ah, so you do read it!?

Matt: Not much. But I do read the Psalms and Proverbs more frequently.

Me: Have you factored in God in all this planning and dreaming?

Matt: Surely. He is the one who gives me the strength and the capability.

Me: How do you intend to show your gratitude?

Matt: Well, to begin with, I will surely give my tithes.

Me: I hope you know that ‘tithe’ is an Old Testament principle. It is not mentioned anywhere in the New Testament!

Matt: It is not? You mean to say, we don’t have to give our tithes?

Me: No, that is not what I mean to say. The ‘New Testament’ principle is that everything belongs to God. We only take what we need. Rest of it belongs to God.

Matt: This is news. So then, you mean to say that we need to take something like a tithe and give the rest away.

Me: I would surely say, give away as much as you can.

Matt: That is so easily said than done.

Me: So is carrying the Cross. Remember, I am not saying it. It’s all there in the Bible. Tithe is what the people in the Old Testament used to give and that too a tithe of everything! So since we have a higher calling than them, a tithe is the minimum that a New Testament believer should do. He should attempt to give much more than a tithe.

Matt: With my level of plans for the future, you are perhaps asking me to give away millions. That suggestion has two blockages in my mind straight away. First is that, it will surely come in the way of my becoming a billionaire. Secondly, if I give away that much to a church, you know what will happen. You already know what happens to the thousands that they already handle. I think church funds are underutilized or more often wrongly routed.

Me: Perhaps. I think you should do some planning for that too. You should perhaps give the tithe to the church, and then the surplus, you should plan it. After all you will need to give account for your management of funds too.

Matt: What if I don’t do it? What if I don’t give more than my tithe?

Me: You just said that God gives you the strength and capability for earning and fulfilling all your dreams. So don’t you think you should payback? Not that God needs our money, but shouldn’t that be an immediate and natural response.

Matt: Yes, That’s why I am giving the tithe!?

Me: I see it like this. Firstly, one should give “time” to God. Nothing in our hands is as valuable as time. People will pay all that they have if they could buy some more time. If you get so busy that you don’t have time to spare for God or for his kingdom, then I think the next best option is an equivalent sum of money. I feel everyone should always prefer to give time over money, because time is life. An hour of our life is a slice of our life that we offer to God. Only when you can’t give God your time because of other commitments, you should give money.

Matt: You are asking me to count every hour that I could perhaps give for God but couldn’t and then convert it into currency and give to the church.

Me: If you can (laugh). Well, I think you should give all you can. God will not look at what you give and how much you give. I think he will look at how much you have kept for yourself.

Matt: So you mean to say I should drop the plans for the villa and the cars and every other luxury that I intend to buy in the future?

Me: I will not tell you a yes or a no to that. It is your decision. But let me tell you something. We often reach a point in life, where we start thinking we are self-made and we toiled for it and therefore we alone deserve it. But look closely and sincerely and you will see thousands, directly or indirectly, were responsible for making you what you are today. Parents, relatives, neighbors, colleagues, peers, friends, church, teachers, buyers, sellers, customers, suppliers, strangers et cetera all contributed in small ways to teach us lessons in life and make us what we are today. I am not just talking about the friendly ones of this lot. You even learnt from your so-called enemies and rivals. So you do owe it back to them. Now I am not asking you to go and find each of them and start paying out dividends. But when we give back to society, not necessarily to the same people, and when everyone does it, true justice is done.

Matt: I don’t have such a high thinking sir. I mean, at this point of time, I am not able to agree with you fully. But surely, I too have thought about doing something for the underprivileged and the orphans and all. But that comes in much later in life.

Me: Do you know that the Income Tax Department follows a golden principle? Pay while you earn. The system of advance taxes is just to facilitate tax.

Matt: I get your point. But I really need to refer to experts in the Bible before I can decide on this one. It’s a big call.

Me: Yeah surely.

We ordered something and decided to silence those small growls that were slowly becoming audible. I am talking about our hunger pangs. The conversation did not end here. There is more to come. But Matt surely was set to thinking. Our talks took interesting twists and turns and a lot of real insights were discussed but all that in the next issue.

Till then, I request every reader, especially the young people, to start giving your tithes and much more if you are not already doing it. And for those who are doing it, strive to give more and more. Support missions, support organizations that genuinely need funds. Of all the people, Jesus talks most about money, because money is a language we all understand and it is definitely a great medium of exchange. Our attitude towards money automatically decides out attitude towards God and so it’s important to consider carefully, how we deal with the Root of all evil- Money. God Bless.

Tags: alternate professions, billionaire, Commodities, credit, cross, crude, give, gym, income tax, jogging, luxury, money, old testament, proverbs, psalms, REIT, rich, spend, tall, time, tithe, USA, villa, young indians

This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 2:46 pm and is filed under Soul Cafe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.