GREED
"An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth".
Many of us are taught to not be greedy since we are young. Remember the last time your parents scolded you for hoarding and hogging your favourite food on the dining table? Well, I do. During my childhood time (Not really that long), chicken are kinda like a luxury food and to have Kentucky Fried Chicken (That's what they called KFC in old days) is like having delicacies such as Abalone and Lobsters in modern terms.
I lo~~~ve KFC even till today and naturally, I will try to take as many as possible without having any thoughts that I have another 3 siblings to share it with. That was when the word greedy being labelled on my forehead. My wife used to tease (and still does) me whenever she browse through my childhood album because there are plenty of evidence of my greediness in my photo. I have a few photos showing me blowing the candle off my birthday cake (I will upload the photos later) and my brother, Samuel would beat me to it and in the photo, you can see that I am really pissed! So, to cut the article short, I am taught not to be greedy since young.
DREAM / AMBITION
"A condition or achievement that is longed for" / "An eager or strong desire to achieve something".
I am also taught to have dreams and ambition by both my parents and teachers in school. My mum always wanted me to be a "professional" when I grew up. When she said "professional", she meant profession such as doctor, pilot, scientist, lawyer and the like. She can be fickle as I grew up because she changed her mind on my ambition from being a doctor to a pilot, from a pilot to a lawyer and on it goes. In school, my teacher would ask the class to aim as high as possible because the sky is the limit. Well, eventually, when I grew up, I became an accountant and this naturally is largely due to my mother as she is an accounting person. Seeing her single-handedly brought us all up with the income she earned from being an accounts executive and all the assets she has massed up, I salute her for that and mind you, she started working only in her early 40's.
"A condition or achievement that is longed for" / "An eager or strong desire to achieve something".
I am also taught to have dreams and ambition by both my parents and teachers in school. My mum always wanted me to be a "professional" when I grew up. When she said "professional", she meant profession such as doctor, pilot, scientist, lawyer and the like. She can be fickle as I grew up because she changed her mind on my ambition from being a doctor to a pilot, from a pilot to a lawyer and on it goes. In school, my teacher would ask the class to aim as high as possible because the sky is the limit. Well, eventually, when I grew up, I became an accountant and this naturally is largely due to my mother as she is an accounting person. Seeing her single-handedly brought us all up with the income she earned from being an accounts executive and all the assets she has massed up, I salute her for that and mind you, she started working only in her early 40's.
DREAM vs GREED
Now enough of greed, dreams and ambition. I was thinking in the morning on my way to work, what is the correlation and distinction between greed and dreams/ambition? Dreams and ambition are supposed to be something really BIG because if something is not really that great in proportion, then it will not qualify to be called a dream. When Martin Luther Kings Jr (MLK) said "I have a dream...", it is something that is feasible albeit difficult and near impossible. Would someone actually called MLK a greedy person? The answer is a straight and prompt "NO", because greediness is a situation when someone is the only person benefiting. Well, if everything is so easily defined as the only person benefitting or otherwise, life would be a lot easier, aye?
Supposed that a kid aims to be a doctor when he/she grew up one day, would we call it greed? I guess we needed more information to be able to establish a judgement because it can be a different story altogether. Given that the kid was told by the parents that "You have to study hard, ah boy/girl and becomes a doctor when you grew up so that you can earn a lot of money and buy a big house for daddy and mummy". So is it greed if the boy/girl grew up having that mentality? Sounds like a "No" right? What if we change the scenario to the boy seeing another kid, Ah Meng, having a toy robot and thinks to himself "I want to be a doctor so that I can earn a lot of money to buy more and better robots than Ah Meng!". Now, without knowledge of these, when the boy said "My ambition is to be a doctor" or "My dream is to become a doctor", no one can really tell right?
I guess the thin line that separates Greed from Dream/Ambition is notion and yes, it is hard to distinct between a good notion and an evil notion and everything in between. My take is that greed and dream/ambition ARE related to a certain extend be it the notion good or bad. So what then? Should I teach my children (If I have any) that they should not have a dream/ambition because by doing so, they are greedy? Certainly not! But one should have dreams/ambitions so that one can be a blessing to others be it family, neighbours or aliens and if having dreams/ambition is to be greed, then let my children thirst and greed to be a blessings to others.
