Stay humble. You can seem like a millionaire to one person and a homeless person to the next. The ants think you are a giant, and the trees don't even notice you. You think you have a boring life, but the next person might be in love with your lifestyle. Don't compare. Ever. Everything is apple and oranges. Comparison is the thief of joy. Stay humble. And just be gareful for what you have. Life is just a big game of perspective.
Imam Shafiโi (ุฑุญู ู ุงููู) said:
โConceal your hardship so much so the people presume you are blessed and have an easy life.โ
[Manaqib ash-Shafiโi, 2/188]
At some point, usually in your 20s, you'll notice that the people around you stop believing in themselves. And no matter how hard you try, you can't save them. By all means, do not let it infect your mind. Stay on your path.
As a man you donโt need much.
Every millionaire who isnโt spoiled knows that men can live off of chicken & rice while sleeping at a hostel. No big deal.
Success isnโt about yourself. it was never about you. winning is about taking care of your family and make sure they are good.
All the extra toys that come with money or success are just temporary pleasures or maybe even distractions.
This is to say, your real source of motivation wonโt come from being selfish but from going from child to man and taking care of the family because that is the only natural non man made organization that evil wants to attack.
As a man itโs your duty to preserve and protect your family while working hard to ensure that the family you have has the best opportunities that maybe you never got access to.
Strive for greatness but find your source of motivation must transcend just money or material possessions.
โI donโt regret that that I didnโt make more money, or become more known, or any of those things. I do regret that I didnโt wise up as fast as I could have.โ
โ Charlie Munger
Sincerity is not visible on the outside. It lives between you and Allah alone. That is why showing off destroys it, and that is why preserving it requires constant vigilance. The heart must be guarded even more than the body.
If your child becomes a reader, about 80% of the educational job is already done. That's our honest assessment, based on many of us working in education for over three decades. Everything else is secondary. Most parents think science education is important. Yes, it is. But if you can't read the biology textbook, you're not going to learn biology.
Reading is the meta-skill that enables all other skills. History requires reading. Science requires reading. Even math increasingly requires reading as it becomes more sophisticated. The child who reads voraciously will figure out everything else. The child who doesn't will struggle with everything.
โNo matter how isolated you are and how lonely you feel, if you do your work truly and conscientiously, unknown friends will come and seek you.โ โ Carl Jung
Avoid people who refuse to self-reflect & avoid accountability
If they canโt keep it real with themselves, theyโll never keep it real with you.