Reflection at 85 - Koon Yew Yin

Very insightful thoughts from superinvestor, Koon Yew Yin

Today is my 85^th birthday. After having lived so long, I have learned quite a lot of things which I would like to share with you tonight. I believe this article can help people to live a happy and useful life.

Even each lover has his or her own secret. But I reveal all.

1.   Our ultimate aim in life must be happiness. Even if you are poor, you can be happy if you can develop your sense of contentment. I always feel satisfied with whatever I have.

2.   Everyone is born to do some work. Most people work for a living. Even if you born from a rich family, you need to do something to while away your time, otherwise life can be boring. Always do the work which you like even for less money. Working for fun is like a hobby. 

3.   There are many obstacles and challenges to overcome in life. Don’t be afraid if you made a mistake. Learn from your mistake so that you can improve. As you go along, you can always learn new things. You are born with 2 ears and 1 mouth. You must always listen more than you talk. You can also learn something new from opposing opinion. When you are not so sure, take a small step first.  

4.   Life is not fair, but it is still good. Never give up if you want to achieve your goal in making money to give your children a good education.

5.   Satisfying your taste bud has always been a great pleasure ever since you were born. But do not over eat or drink. To be healthy, you eat to live and not live to eat. Of course, you can over indulge occasionally to be happy. 

6.   No one can win an argument all the time. You can always find reasons to justify your argument. To avoid unhappiness, you don’t have to win every argument. If you continue to argue, you will lose a friend.

7.   Besides the holy bible, the best book to read is ‘How to win friends and influence people’ by Dale Carnegie. After reading it, you will know how to win friends and influence people to cooperate with you to achieve your goal easier. The first principle in management is to find a donkey to help do your work. When in doubt, just take a small step forward.

8.   Make peace with your past so it won’t mess up the present.

9.   Don’t compare your life to others because you don’t know what they have gone through.

 

10.   Get rid of anything that is not useful so that you are free to move forward.

 

11.  We are often faced with a myriad of choices. Though we may not always recognize their presence, we are inevitably faced with the responsibility of having to make a choice. There is no escaping this responsibility - after all, not deciding what to do or how to act in a given situation is a choice in itself. But why are the choices we make so important? If you want to be happy, you have to make a choice to be happy.

 

12.  When you are in great difficulty and you cannot find a solution, remember that time heals everything. Nothing except death is permanent, for time will change everything.   

13.  You cannot be always right. Be humble to admit your mistake.

14.  Forgiveness is the key to happiness. 

15.  Envy is a negative emotion. Accept what you already have, not what your friends have.

16.  It is better not to expect anything from your children to avoid disappointment. 

17.  Always believe the best is yet to come. Hoping for better days is positive thinking.  

18.  Always be honest and sincere. Treat people with kindness and help them in whatever way you can. If you can help people to gain happiness, you will also gain happiness. 

19.  To reduce stress, I always try to be happy by counting my blessings. I try not to meet too many people. I try to avoid big wedding dinners. 

20.  Don’t suffer from an exaggerated sense of injustice. We must be concerned about politics because it affects all of us in so many ways and impacts the future of our children. But you must bear in mind that you alone cannot change the situation or the flow of current affairs. After you have done what you can, leave it to fate and don’t be unhappy. 

21.  Don’t care too much what others think of you. Normally you will not feel happy to do something without your spouse’s approval, or that of friends and family. But you must not be afraid to exercise your own judgment in certain important matters, e.g. when to buy and when to sell shares. Everyone has his own opinion but who is right and who is wrong is a constant puzzle.

22.  Investing in the stock market is the easiest way to make money if you know how to select good stocks. After more than 50 years of experience, I thought I have seen every situation and nothing can surprise me any more until I found Hengyuan. Its share price rose from Rm 2.50 in the beginning of 2017 to close at Rm17.30 yesterday, a rise of 700% within 1 year.

My share selection golden rule:

I found it by using my share selection golden rule which cannot be found in any text book. Among all the criteria such as NTA, cash flow, return on equity, healthy accounts with cash in fix deposit, the most important is profit growth prospect which is the most powerful catalyst to move share price. When I see a company with good business showing a sudden jump in profit, I will start to buy it as long as its prospective P/E is less than 10. I will continue to buy more shares if it shows increasing profit. I will not sell until I see the company starts to report a reduced profit.   

23.  How I create more and more charity workers? I will feel happy if I can make someone happy. I have given more than 300 scholarships to help needy students to complete their tertiary education. All my scholarship recipients are not required to work for me or return the money I spent on them. But they must remember that when they were poor I helped them and when they have more money than they require, they should help other poor people. In this way, hopefully, there will be more and more people doing charity.

24.  Always remember that you cannot take with you any of your possessions when you die. I have written in my will that my executers will use all my remaining wealth to help poor students.

25.  How I can prolong my life? I had a hereditary familial hypercholesterolemia which means that my body produces a lot more cholesterol than ordinary people. 3 out of my 8 siblings have the same blood disease. My elder brother died before he reached the age of 50. My younger sister who went with me to London to have the same bypass operation in 1983, died about 10 years after the operation.

Why I am still alive? Here are my secrets:

My wife’s loving care and affection are most important. Physical and mental exercises are important. I walk about 30 minute every evening. I spend about 8 hours on the computer every day to exercise my brain to keep me mentally alert.

When I wake up in the morning, I drink 2 glasses of water. I drink more water than I really required. I eat half a pineapple every morning on an empty stomach and I do not eat anything before lunch.

I have an hour’s nap after lunch. I do not overeat. I drink 1 or 2 cups of coffee. I avoid sugar.

26. Most people are afraid to die. After I have lived a useful and happy long life with no regrets, I am not afraid to die.