Unfulfilled dream

About two decades ago, Ayub Yahya (not his real name) was a rich man by Indonesian standards. He had graduated as an economist from a prestigious university and his wife held a law degree. They lived happily in a large house in Jakarta with a very spacious garden, about 1,000 square meters, and considering the high price of land, Ayub could certainly be categorized as affluent.

To top it all, he drove a Mercedes Benz limousine. It goes without saying that the family lived in an elite neighborhood.

However, Ayub had a dream, an American dream, so to speak. He reasoned that, if he could succeed in Indonesia, he could undoubtedly succeed in Uncle Sam's back yard.

With his university degree and his fluent English, plus a large amount of U.S. dollars at his disposal, by disposing of all his possession in Indonesia, he was confident that even in the United States he would not have any trouble in making a living.

As the first step toward accomplishing his dream, he sold all his possessions including his comfortable Mercedes and migrated to America. His three daughters were enrolled at a prestigious school and having a sizable amount of dollars he easily bought a home. So far so good! His dream had come true.

But when he tried to secure a respectable white-collar job in one of the large companies as befitted a man with a university degree, his dream proved empty. He sent hundreds of application letters to prestigious companies, but they were all in vain.

When his dollars began to dwindle rapidly, he and his wife decided to do something to make a living. They opened a laundry shop in Los Angeles and although it meant hard work from sun-up to sun-down, the family business flourished according to plan. They could smile again.

A few months passed until one fine day, Ayub woke in the morning to find a new Korean laundry shop had opened in the same street. Trouble started again. All his customers preferred to have their washing laundered by the Korean competitor and they worked more efficiently, more professionally and, after all, the charges were lower.

After a while, Yahya had to sell his laundry shop and other assets and return to Jakarta. It was not hard to imagine that they then began their life from scratch. Fortunately his wife managed to find a well-paid job to further finance their three kids who were still studying in the States.

A lesson to be drawn from this is that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta