Dear Brothers and Sisters,

You are extremely busy. You race against the clock every minute of the day, to get everything done, and you never have enough time for everything you need to do.

That is the story of the human world called rat race, isn’t it? Just a bunch of rats racing in a maze.

Do you ever feel sorry for yourself?

Racing against the clock is not a wise way to live, my friends. The more you run, the more you fail and the earlier you die.

Why?

If you try to do everything extremely fast, you are bound to make a lot of errors, and spend a lot of time to fix your errors. You end up spending probably three times more time than a person working slowly and carefully, to finish the same thing; and you gain the reputation of a lousy worker, while the slower and more careful person is considered a superb worker. And you are constantly stressed.

The truth is simple to understand: Working slowly and carefully wins; working fast and carelessly loses.

You can’t have everything at the same time: Fast usually means careless; slow usually means careful. Pick your choice.

You just can’t be fast and careful at the same time.

But why do people run fast all the time?

Because (1) They are scared. When you are scared, you run non-stop. Scared of what? Scared of not having enough time. And (2) they are under the illusion of the faster the better.

Slow down, relax, and work carefully. You want to focus on QUALITY, not quantity.

Trust me. I was working extremely fast as a litigating attorney – working extremely fast during the day–and at night the mind still worked in my sleep. I was stressed constantly, 24 hours a day, and was rough to everyone around me, including my family members.

But, one day I woke up to understand that I was killing myself. No job is important enough for you to kill yourself. And I decided to slow down.

Lucky me! During that time and in the period of 10, 15 years after that, a number of my friends dropped dead, or got so sick that they could no longer work, by doctor’s order.

At least, I now have lived longer than them 20, 25, 30 years, and I am still working very well.

So, my friends, if you smart, slow down – to succeed and to live long.

With compassion,

Hoành

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