Been talking to my friend who in an industry that involve those words while himself get involve with the prominent person in the particular industry. Let's call my friend as Mr A, while this prominent person as Mr F. So here is the story.
Mr F who claimed himself as philanthropist, yet socialite at the same time was organizing a big event and approached my friend to ask for sponsorship. Mr A, a small fish in the industry could not resist the marketing effect that he will gain from the event, cant really say no, yet Mr A does not want to give 100% sponsorship, instead he gave his Intellectual Property right to Mr F to utilize it. The reason of this action was taken because Mr A heard from his other friends/networks that Mr F is a kind of difficult person to work with, but since he has not experienced it directly, so Mr A put his trusts on Mr F, a person who Mr A admired for quite long time.
In another hand, Mr F is a multimillionaire who become a billionaire in only 1-2 year(s) time. To be honest, after you read to this full story you might question whether this Mr F is really a billionaire.
To cut long story short, Mr F cheated, tricked, and humiliated Mr A in so many ways that you think will only happen in the screen i.e. Gossip Girl TV Series. Mr A has a right to sue Mr F to the court i.e. from violation of IP-right, humiliation, etc, but his logic that Mr F is a prominent person and will use any number of ways to win the court, chickened out Mr A to do it, because generally society will think that Mr A simply wants to leech out Mr F money, while the fact is another way around. So now Mr A is simply praying to GOD so Mr F will get the karma from what he has done to him and OTHERS.
Yeah I said others. Like I said previously, Mr F us a kind of difficult person to work with. In organizing an event, he likes to ask for sponsorship from a small fish to cut-off his budget for an event or what kind of his business. You can see here how a businessman thinks economically, but if you claimed yourself a philanthropist, you will not do something that will cause unhealthy economy or even worse welfare of others right? Because the last time I check to Mr Google about the meaning of philanthropist, here is what Mr Google told me:
So actually if Mr F claimed himself as philanthropist, shouldnt him quote a price to Mr A because it will give a positive economy cycle to both parties? In one side, it gets along with what Mr F claimed he is, while in another hand Mr F nurture economy at the same time. I found it amusingly WOW when heard about other stories from others about Mr F:
1. Out of 3 events, another friend of mine working together with Mr F, only 1 was totally paid and the rest? No ideas why Mr F never paid, maybe he is too busy with his own schedule? As you know he is socialite as well.
2. Mr F claimed he bought a new car with a price of more than a million, while I heard a story from the PREVIOUS OWNER OF THE CAR, that Mr F bought the car under 500k sgd. Well, you might think it is not a big deal, but will you still think the same if Mr F made the fuss about the so-called new car and the price to media?
Okay from the story above, can I say that the statement of Mr F is a billionaire (or multimillionaire) philanthropist is wrong? In my own opinion, I can say so. So now what about whether he is a socialite or a social climber? Let's ask Mr Google again what those 2 words mean.
Well, according to both definitions, I think he fits both words, because indeed he is socialite, yet a social climber at the same time. He cant deny that he just get into the SG society few years back (yeah Mr F is not local), and lifestyle that he has now makes him cant pay for the expenses that he had for his own organized past events?
This kind of story always remind me of a talk by Derek Sivers when I attended Echelon 2011: a person only can hold to one in a time, call it wealth, fame, legacy, or in my case as a student: knowledge? But it is kinda true that you shall focus in one thing, so you put your best efforts on it.
