At the end of the day, what is your purpose of your life? #WilliamPao

Dr. William Pao is my final year supervisor. He graduated from Swansea University and then became a lecturer in Manchester. Later, he was recruited by Shell regional manager after he gave a talk at a CMS event. He then spent over two years working in Texas and moved to Nederlands afterwards. He came back to Malaysia to join UTP last year. Yesterday, we spent nearly three hours talking about life and its reflections. I thought it was really a thoughtful and meaningful conversation. There were a lot of key takeaways, and I would just like to share three of them in this post.

1. At the end of the day, what is your purpose in life?
2. Monetary reward can only bring you so far. You won’t go too far without knowing what you really like to do. Keep finding.
3. There are five things that you really have to take care of in your life. They are your relationship with God, your relationship with your family, your relationship with people, your finances, and your health.

He also told me about his Ph.D. life, his collaboration with oil and gas experience to complete his thesis, how Shell recruited him, why he came back to Malaysia, why he joined UTP, Harold Vinegar, how a CEO got fired, life with love, and many more that I can’t remember now. Deep in my heart, I keep asking myself, What’s life? What do I really want to accomplish? You know, money, fame, and ego are not always the answers.