Reading this ''Smart Advisory" in Chinese sets me into quiet moments of reflection, contemplation and introspection mode.

I share the essential message that, as long as one gives his or her best shot in life, with no regrets at all, then living so is already meaningful.

I look back fondly at my own life's journey.

I became an engineer, because I was fascinated as a young impressionable boy, while hanging out with grease monkeys [one of them eventually became my late 4th eldest brother-in-law] in the workshop garage, adjoining my parents' home in Yong Peng, Johor, Malaysia, during the fifties and early sixties.

Collecting travel brochures was one of my favourite childhood hobbies, besides reading comics and watching movies.

During my corporate career spanning almost a quarter of a century, I have had the wonderful opportunity to learn a lot of really good stuff from my bosses [Swiss, German, Singaporean/Malaysian, Swedish, and Indonesian] and also from interactions with myriad associates and diverse customers across several Asean countries.

More importantly, I have also managed to visit and tour 60 countries, which had captured my passion since childhood, together with my late Catherine [knew her for 35 years; married for 18].

My company-sponsored sabbatical at the London Business School in UK in the mid-80's and later my sojourn at the Excellerated Business Schools for Entrepreneurship in Kona, Hawaii, in the early 90's, gave me a lot of entrepreneurial insights to strike out on my own.

I have had my fair share of trials and tribulations, but thanks to all the giants on whose broad shoulders I had stood steadfastly on [Paul J Meyer, Maxwell Maltz, Napolean Hill, Earl Nightingale, Denis Waitley, Alex Osborn, George Prince, Edward de Bono, William J J Gordon, Charles Hayes, Ron Gross, Rolf Smith, Robert Tucker, Michael Michalko, Richard Leider, Frederic Hudson, Richard Bolles, FM-2030, John Naisbitt, Dudley Lynch, Frank Feather, Joel Arthur Barker, Stephen Covey, Tom Peters, Jamie McKenzie, Price Pritchett, W Edwards Deming, R Buckminster Fuller, Robert Kiyosaki, Anthony Robbins, Bruce Lee, Miyamoto Musashi, Harry Palmer, Patricia Danielson, Jim Channon, David Sibbet, just to name some of the influential ones], mastering and applying their strategies, tips and hints helped to make my day.

So, I retired at the age of 43, to run a small but unique retail store, with books as one of the principal products, so as to bankroll my voracious reading habits, in addition to writing a subscription newsletter, offering strategic advice to small business folks, solo professionals and even school students. Training development naturally came with the territory.

After marrying my current wife May, I shut down my business operations in 2005, and relocated to Vietnam in 2010, and have now made it my new home.

I am now spending my remaining ''retyring years'' (no typo, just a way to denote my novel spin in a new environment) in this big country by offering my personal services to help Vietnamese kids, teens and even nuns (on a pro-bono basis, at the blind centre), plus Vietnamese professionals, to master the English Language, on top of attaining global life skills, in addition to my own intellectual pursuits, like reading and surfing.

My only real consulting work is helping my good buddy Dilip Mukerjea in Mumbai, India, to serve as his sounding board and strategic partner via technology.

In retrospect, I have had done my best, and I have no regrets.