A Heavy Price to Pay
My sister sent me a text message which shocked me, last night.
She told me that my brother was selling off his legal practice, to pay off his mounting debts, currently hovering at about the RM5 million level. The debt problem just became uncontainable. Even a possible bankruptcy is on the cards, if the financial issues are not resolved.
Despite my anger over past issues and his embezzlement of our family assets, I feel for him, right now.
The legal firm was something which he inherited from our late father. It was a cash cow and it was doing relatively well, for a small to mid-sized firm. If he had just stuck to that, he'd be relatively wealthy by now and perhaps, pretty debt-free, too.
But for years, the profits that came from legal practice want to funding all his other business "experiments" in property development, construction, the travel business, multi-level marketing and every other venture, which he "felt" he could make money on, just purely on gut feel.
Abang's not too big on details and he tends to have the Achilles Heel of bad businessmen in the Mahathir era - he BELIEVED in his own inflated sales projection, everything was "geared" to the maximum and the plans were always BIG and involved getting rich quick. Yet as the recent economic crisis has shown, companies which are imprudently managed will get hit much worse, than the others.
Good money followed after bad - and the monies pumped into his other businesses from his legal firm, went up in flames. The legal firm, despite making lots of money, remained small and the loyal staff pretty much went unrewarded, for years. And his ventures are now saddling him with a huge debt now - one that's pushing him to financial collapse.
I remember him saying to me that he wanted his daughter to do Law and to take over the family legal firm. It would be a smooth passing over to the 3rd generation in the family, and would facilitate his retirement plans.
All that is gone now, even though my niece, Ida, will probably enroll in law school, next year. Looks like some things, are not meant to be.
He will sell off the legal firm, but that will only help him contain a substantial part of the problem. It will not resolve the entire debt - he still has to find another source of income to resolve that - albeit, the problem will be on a smaller scale.
But at 46 years old, my brother is starting from scratch all over again, in a new business. Broke and in huge debt.
This time, he's put his faith in the highly specialized syariah-compliant pesaka management services. It has latent potential - but it's a tough market to be in for 2 reasons - Malay Muslims in Malaysia do not generally plan for their death and the division of inheritance properties, thereafter.
They leave it to Syariah laws of fara'id, (for those who die intestate)to handle all that. Some do that, being totally unaware that the religion allows you to plan, to a limited extent, to protect the interest of your loved ones. (This is especially so, if you're a Muslim family with only daughters and no sons or where the man is polygamous)
Perhaps, there will be a day when the market will be large enough, but the growth will take much time, as the Malay market has to be educated on inheritance management. It's a tough venture - the Malays nowadays hardly do financial planning when they're alive - much less asking them to plan for things that happen after their death.
But at a time when all his friends are in the financial prime of their lives and looking forward to retiring in 10 years time, Abang is starting all over again. And worse - because he's still fighting off big debts. If he can keep financially afloat for the next 2 years, at least, he'd be able to see 3 of his 5 children graduate. That will help to stabilize the boat, for the remaining 2 children, hopefully.
I feel for him - I really do. Even if this pain has been self-inflicted and almost acts like long overdue karma, it is still a heavy price to pay. The road ahead is still very uncertain for him. It could get better, or it could get a lot worse.
It's such a costly lesson. But if he learns from it, and comes out of it, being a better person and the brother I used to know and was proud of, 10 years ago - maybe it's worth it.
For you can't put a price, on regaining the redemption of your soul, your conscience, your integrity and the love and respect of your family members. It's a price that God decides for you - perhaps, the price and suffering that you have to pay, for you to be saved from yourself.
I really feel for him. And a door in my heart has unexpectedly opened, for forgiveness to happen. Though I'm still cautious and taking it one step at a time - after all, a leopard does not change his spots overnight. And after all that's happened, respect must be earned and is not automatically due anymore.
But let's hope this leopard does. Because truth be told, I miss having a brother that I could look up to. May God protect his path to redemption.
She told me that my brother was selling off his legal practice, to pay off his mounting debts, currently hovering at about the RM5 million level. The debt problem just became uncontainable. Even a possible bankruptcy is on the cards, if the financial issues are not resolved.
Despite my anger over past issues and his embezzlement of our family assets, I feel for him, right now.
The legal firm was something which he inherited from our late father. It was a cash cow and it was doing relatively well, for a small to mid-sized firm. If he had just stuck to that, he'd be relatively wealthy by now and perhaps, pretty debt-free, too.
But for years, the profits that came from legal practice want to funding all his other business "experiments" in property development, construction, the travel business, multi-level marketing and every other venture, which he "felt" he could make money on, just purely on gut feel.
Abang's not too big on details and he tends to have the Achilles Heel of bad businessmen in the Mahathir era - he BELIEVED in his own inflated sales projection, everything was "geared" to the maximum and the plans were always BIG and involved getting rich quick. Yet as the recent economic crisis has shown, companies which are imprudently managed will get hit much worse, than the others.
Good money followed after bad - and the monies pumped into his other businesses from his legal firm, went up in flames. The legal firm, despite making lots of money, remained small and the loyal staff pretty much went unrewarded, for years. And his ventures are now saddling him with a huge debt now - one that's pushing him to financial collapse.
I remember him saying to me that he wanted his daughter to do Law and to take over the family legal firm. It would be a smooth passing over to the 3rd generation in the family, and would facilitate his retirement plans.
All that is gone now, even though my niece, Ida, will probably enroll in law school, next year. Looks like some things, are not meant to be.
He will sell off the legal firm, but that will only help him contain a substantial part of the problem. It will not resolve the entire debt - he still has to find another source of income to resolve that - albeit, the problem will be on a smaller scale.
But at 46 years old, my brother is starting from scratch all over again, in a new business. Broke and in huge debt.
This time, he's put his faith in the highly specialized syariah-compliant pesaka management services. It has latent potential - but it's a tough market to be in for 2 reasons - Malay Muslims in Malaysia do not generally plan for their death and the division of inheritance properties, thereafter.
They leave it to Syariah laws of fara'id, (for those who die intestate)to handle all that. Some do that, being totally unaware that the religion allows you to plan, to a limited extent, to protect the interest of your loved ones. (This is especially so, if you're a Muslim family with only daughters and no sons or where the man is polygamous)
Perhaps, there will be a day when the market will be large enough, but the growth will take much time, as the Malay market has to be educated on inheritance management. It's a tough venture - the Malays nowadays hardly do financial planning when they're alive - much less asking them to plan for things that happen after their death.
But at a time when all his friends are in the financial prime of their lives and looking forward to retiring in 10 years time, Abang is starting all over again. And worse - because he's still fighting off big debts. If he can keep financially afloat for the next 2 years, at least, he'd be able to see 3 of his 5 children graduate. That will help to stabilize the boat, for the remaining 2 children, hopefully.
I feel for him - I really do. Even if this pain has been self-inflicted and almost acts like long overdue karma, it is still a heavy price to pay. The road ahead is still very uncertain for him. It could get better, or it could get a lot worse.
It's such a costly lesson. But if he learns from it, and comes out of it, being a better person and the brother I used to know and was proud of, 10 years ago - maybe it's worth it.
For you can't put a price, on regaining the redemption of your soul, your conscience, your integrity and the love and respect of your family members. It's a price that God decides for you - perhaps, the price and suffering that you have to pay, for you to be saved from yourself.
I really feel for him. And a door in my heart has unexpectedly opened, for forgiveness to happen. Though I'm still cautious and taking it one step at a time - after all, a leopard does not change his spots overnight. And after all that's happened, respect must be earned and is not automatically due anymore.
But let's hope this leopard does. Because truth be told, I miss having a brother that I could look up to. May God protect his path to redemption.
posted by Stingrayz | 6:58 PM
5 Comments:
Thanks for the scoop,Ray.
On one hand, I'm really sorry to read about this latest development on your brother, since it is, like you rightly put it, such a costly lesson. I have an uncle who never really settles down until present, in his 47th year of living, with two studying children who needs stability. He doesn't fall as hard as your brother, but the whole family is silently worried all the same. To a small extent, I can understand what your family has gone through.
On the other hand, perhaps this is the blessing in disguise. I too, hope that this will open a new chapter between you and him. Alhamdulillah for your feel to forgive, Ray, for he will need his flesh and blood behind him now. If not for him, perhaps for his children whom I'm sure you love very much.
My prayers are with you and your family.
Thanks, Voice.
Yeah, you're right, Zarina. But it's one thing for a company to be well run and get hit badly by the economic crisis.
It's another to cause a company's downfall by pure financial mismanagement (and embezzlement, too) due to trying to keep up a lavish lifestyle and hopping into get rich quick schemes.
In this case, it's the latter. The rot started earlier on - the economic crisis is just a convenient excuse for him.
Hey Stingray
I ran acrossed your blog and A Heavy Price to Pay caught my eye. I thought I would stop and take a look.
Later,
check out debt free
Hey Stingray
I ran acrossed your blog and A Heavy Price to Pay caught my eye. I thought I would stop and take a look.
Later,
check out debt free consolidation
Post a Comment
<< Home