I work, so I am

Several years ago someone asked me when I was going to retire. It was a normal course of event. People stopped working at 55 and retired. I am still working, more of a necessity than anything else. Over the weekend I heard of this friend who is going to ask for extension of employment. He is in the mid 60s. He is not the Ah Pek that needs a job to pay for the next meal. He is a CEO of a MNC. Why would he want to continue working at that age? His children are on their own. He had not only bought them a car each, but also a landed property each. And his own net worth is easily $20-$30m. Doesn't he want to spend the rest of his life playing golf, sail or travel around the world, doing things that he did not have the chance to do before, playing with his grandchildren, or become a small emperor in Bintan, Batam or JB? He cannot retire, and he must not retire. He does not want to be known as a retiree. It sounded as if he is a worthless man, a retiree! Many of these successful and multi milllionaires may have fallen into this same situation. The fear of retirement and the loss of their big titles. They want to be known as CEO, Director or Chairman of this and that. Money is also good, for some, for doing nothing. And there are all the perks and the names and name cards to throw around. All these people will work until they die. They live to work and work to live. That is their meaning of life. The only reason to justify their existence as a human being, to work and work and work. Perhaps we should glamorise the title multi millionaire or billionaire and people who are so rich should print it on their name cards as a status symbol. And they can add in the phrase, 'I don't need to work.' I like to gripe about people not knowing how to die gracefully. Now there are all these successful people who can afford to retire gracefully to enjoy a life with newfound freedom that money can buy. But retire they not.