karmachoden

The Parable of the Pipeline: A Roadmap to Financial Abundance and Wealth Creation

“The Parable of the Pipeline” by Burke Hedges presents a a compelling allegory that changes traditional notions of wealth creation and financial independence. The book imparts several key lessons that are pertinent in today’s economic landscape. Hedges underscores the significance of transitioning from active income to passive income. By delineating the limitations of trading time for money, he advocates for the creation of systems that generates residual income, thereby paving the way for financial freedom.

Moreover, the concept of leveraging is skillfully expounded upon, stressing the transformative power of effectively utilizing resources such as time, money and relationships. In today’s world, the ultimate leveraging is the internet leveraging which should be taken advantaged of to build our own pipeline within four to five years. If we go for money leveraging to create residual income, it mgiht take 50 years or so to finally build the pipeline. So the choice is basically in our hands whether to go for money leveraging or time leveraging knowing the fact that everyone doesn’t have the same amount of money but all of us have the same amount of time. Hedges reinforces the notion that strategic leveraging is paramount in achieving long -term prosperity.

Central to the narratives is the theme of mindset and belief transformation. The book serves as a catalyst for readers to challenge conventional paradigms about work and money, fostering an entrepreneurial mindset focussed on value creation and problem-solving.

Furthermore, the emphasis on collaboration and cooperation resonates as the book accentuates the collective benefits and amplified outcomes arising from unified endeavours. The promotion of calculated risk-taking and adaptability further underscores the autho’s forward-thinking approach to wealth accumulation.

The parable of the Pipeline fundamentally seeks to inspire a paradigm shift in wealth creation by advocating for a departure from linear income in favour of residual income. Hedges’ strategic and innovative insights provide s roadmap for readers to navigate the evolving landscape and pursue financial abundance.

when you look at the characters in the book you will notice that Ninety percent of the world’s population seems to align with Bruno, who carries a bucket, while only three percent align with Pablo, who focuses on building pipelines. Similarly, a large majority of people resonate with the character of Darryl Strawberry, who has a big bucket but lacks the pipeline-building mindset, whereas only three percent resonate with Margaret O’ Donnell who has a small bucket but possesses a pipeline-building mindset.

Needless to say, conditioned by the mindset of the society, personally, at first, I saw myself in the shoes of Bruno, carrying a bucket, having a 9-5 job in Bhutan for 18 years. Then I related more to Darryl Strawberry, carrying a bigger bucket after moving to Australia. Only recently, I have transitioned from the bucket-carrying mindset to the pipeline-building mindset, inspired by the likes of Pablo and Margaret.

Embracing Self-Love and Empathy: A Journey of Resilience and Compassion

On this glorious 1st of February 2023, I graced the magnificent Taj Mahal, the embodiment of love and one of the wonders of the world, in India. It was a journey of self-love and self-celebration as I marked the golden milestone of my fifty years on this wondrous planet. Today, as I turn fifty and 365 days young, I ponder on the significance of falling in love with myself once more.

For the past three years, I embraced a life of solitude, withdrawing from social media, family, and friends. In the depths of my being, I battled profound depression and severe anxiety, with thoughts of ending my own life haunting me relentlessly. Attempts to confide in loved ones only left me feeling misunderstood and judged, fueling my isolation. Medications such as sertraline, diazepam (Valium), and sleeping tablets became essential for my mental well-being.

Despite my disconnection from the world, I persisted in my work, masquerading behind a facade of happiness. I recall the words from a book that the person who laughs the loudest and smiles the biggest is often the saddest – that person was me three years ago. I waged a silent, solitary war, seeking solace in extensive travels between my professional commitments. A larger narrative on depression, anxiety, and mental health will follow in due course.

Today, as I celebrate my 51st birthday, I fervently urge myself to show kindness to my own being. I have done my bit for my  family, friends, relatives, siblings, and even strangers in need. I have made valuable contributions to both local and global communities. Having spent 18 productive years educating bright young minds of today, I have proudly served my country. My efforts have extended to assisting numerous NGOs and organizations in both Bhutan and Australia.

In essence, I’ve come to realize that for the last fifty one years, I’ve primarily lived my life for others. Why should I continue to burden myself with guilt for not doing enough? Like any regular person, I’ve made numerous mistakes, and I’ve found myself caught in a cycle of overthinking and, ultimately, depression as I dwell on these past errors. However, upon introspection and contemplation, I’ve come to recognize that my mistakes pale in comparison to the positive impact I’ve had on the world.

It’s crucial to acknowledge the journey that has brought me to where I am today. Recognizing the adversity I have faced and the resilience I have shown, I understand the importance of self-compassion. My experiences have shaped me into an empathetic and compassionate individual, and it’s high time I extend that empathy and compassion towards myself.

Taking this moment to reflect and celebrate, I am filled with gratitude for the opportunities that have allowed me to contribute meaningfully to the lives of others. As I turn the page to this new chapter of my life, I embrace the idea of living authentically, without the weight of past expectations and perceived failures. There is strength in vulnerability, and I find solace in knowing that the battles I’ve fought have paved the way for greater self-discovery and profound understanding.

Today, I’m sharing my story not to seek empathy or sympathy, but to shatter the stereotypes and stigma surrounding depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues. I share my story to shed light on all the courageous souls silently battling, to let them know that I survived and so can you. My story aims to initiate open dialogues and foster conversations about mental health, breaking the silence and bringing about awareness.

It is imperative that we create a supportive environment where individuals feel free to share their experiences without fear of judgment. By doing so, we can dismantle the misconceptions and misunderstandings that often surround mental health. Through openness and understanding, we can offer solace and strength to those struggling, and strive to build a community where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued.

I believe that each person’s journey with mental health is unique and deserves to be respected. Let us continue to stand together, embracing empathy and compassion, and encouraging one another to seek the help and support we need. Together, we can shift the narrative around mental health, replacing shame with acceptance, and isolation with connection. Remember, you are not alone, and your story has the power to inspire and uplift others.

The Perks of being a VOLUNTEER with ABPI- A Personal Perspective

The first time when we attended the meeting to do the handing-taking over of the ABPI in November last year, one of the former executive members said that she has been waiting for this day to hand over and the day has finally come. I didn’t understand the deeper meaning of her words then but now I do. I can now relate very well why she took a sigh of relief and uttered those fainted words.

Well let me begin by introducing the readers to the Association of the Bhutanese in Perth Incorporated-most commonly or famously or infamously known as ABPI. With the increasing rise of Bhutanese in Perth, WA, our well-intentioned predecessors initiated the formation of an association to cater to the needs of the Bhutanese Community. These founders were far sighted. They knew exactly what kind of social ills and issues that Bhutanese would go though as a community. Thanks to all the former executive members who sacrificed their time and service and created what we see todays ABPI.

And in April 2014 ABPI bearing registration number A101769E got incorporated under the Associations Incorporation Act of 1987, Western Australia. ABPI, thus, functions with the Constitutions and Rules and Regulations that has been framed according to legal requirement of the Associations Incorporation Act of 1987 and revised as per the Associations Incorporation Act of 2015.

ABPI has come a long way since then and it is still run and managed by a group of volunteers in the name of Executive Team with various title such as President, General Secretary, Treasurer, Event Coordinator, Web Administrator, Area Coordinators and so on. ABPI doesn’t have any funding on its own and is sustained through the registration fees of its members, which is only AUD 20 annually, and AUD 30 Biennial.

So how does these executive members work?

In a place like Australia where time is very precious, this group of individuals takes time out to provide the pro bono voluntary services to the community members. I personally took up these voluntary services thinking that serving our Bhutanese anywhere would be as good as serving our King, Country and the People-our Tsa-Wa-Sum. These groups of people are no different from the rest of the Bhutanese who are here in Australia. We go through the same work routine, odd working hours, stress of studies, time management and every thing that others experience. The only difference is that these set of people have come forward to go an extra mile and serve the community. We get calls at odd hours asking for support, which we heartily attend to. Sometimes we need to take leave from our paid jobs to attend the community meetings or to attend to official matters with the government or other agencies. Most time we not only end up sacrificing our time and energy but we end up spending from our own pockets. And most time from my own personal experience is that I end up staying late hours doing paper works and official correspondences thereby ending up in lack of proper sleep. The time that we manage to pull out between the works should actually be our resting time, which we have to spend on doing public free services.

Let me give you an example of a fund drive that we do which might seem like a very simple activity in the eyes of the outsiders. Everything needs a coordinated effort. Firstly, the issue has to come to the notice of the executive team who takes the issue up for discussions in the group. Since all of us work at different time, we have to wait for the response from each other although we always make an effort to use every single free time we get to respond in the group. We need to get the background details of the individuals against whose name we are raising the fund. We feel it is our moral responsibility and the people’s right to get the right and correct information so that they can make informed decision while doing public donations. In order to get the right information, we need to make a lot of visit to the individual person whether he/she is in the hospital or at home. Or we even end up having constant discussions with the relatives if any. Since ABPI is an institution, we are liable for auditing and we should be held responsible for everything we do. So proper documentation and crosschecking have to be duly followed. Once the public donations start pouring in we need to report it to the public every day to maintain transparency. All these need to be done through a coordinated effort involving all the volunteers. This is just once case scenario. Some of the visible things that people see ABPI doing must be just the public fund raising. There are so many supports the volunteers provide behind the curtain. Like many people ask for recommendation letters to apply for jobs here, to get loan in Bhutan, to rent a house, to process a visa and ABPI has been diligently providing all these services to people on time. Most times we end up hours on phone attending to people’s need. Many ask for legal advices, which even we are not proficient with and we go out of the way to find out these services for our people and recommend to them accordingly. We also attend to many relationship cases and provided due support. Especially this year has been very challenging with the impact of COVID 19 on our Bhutanese Community. Personally I got down with severe headache for a month, chronic erosive gastritis, anxiety and stress that nearly led me into depression. 

So what exactly are the perks of being a volunteer with ABPI? Check out the following list:

1. Lots of personal sacrifices, stress, anxiety and could even lead to depression.
2. Public criticism- there are certain group of people who always criticizes what the ABPI does thereby putting more pressure and stress on the volunteers and demoralizing the spirit of voluntarism.
3. Expenditure from your own pockets- you not only sacrifice your time and energy but you also end up spending from your own pockets all the time.
4. Lots of arguments and debates within the executive team because we aim towards doing the right things and providing the right services.
5. Grievances from individuals who feel ignored.
6. Some rude individuals who demand services as if they pay us.
7. Lots of opinions from some so called learned people in the community. 
8. Harassment and bullying over phone from some aggressive, arrogant and pushy people. Lately, some of our humble volunteers have been experiencing bullying from such people putting our volunteers under tremendous stress and pressure.

What would be the consequences?

Our predecessors have put in a lot of effort to form the association and our volunteers in the past have brought the association to what it is now. It is important for the general Bhutanese populace in Perth to know how the association is run and be appreciative of the hard works and sacrifices put in by the volunteers. If some opinionated individuals and groups keep criticizing the works of the volunteers, there will come a day ABPI will have no volunteers to run the association. This will have a huge negative impact on the general Bhutanese community. This could be also one of the main reasons why ABPI could not be strengthened. Volunteers need support from the general public to enhance and strengthen the association. It has to be done in conjunction with each other. Some of our former volunteers who have been in the same shoes empathize with the volunteers when we get attacked on social media while on the other hands there also seem to be some watching over us like an eagle and picking faults on everything that we do.

The ABPI is for the Bhutanese by the Bhutanese so we should all be in it together supporting each other, pulling each other up in a foreign land, maintain our close knit bonding, our Tha-Dhamtsi and Lay-Jumdrey to the Tsa-Wa-Sum and be a pillar for each other. Bhutanese in general have always been applauded for our solidarity and we should not let anything break that in us.

This post is shared with the intention to create awareness to all fellow Bhutanese on how the association is run so that no body dares to say ABPI executives rules the people.

DISCLAIMER: This blog is a personal page and all views are Author’s own and not related to official stand or position. The views does not represent ABPI’s stand.

A letter to the Prime Minister of Australia from a Bhutanese

Dear ScoMo (Hon’ble Prime Minister of Australia)

First of all let me share a brief history of how my country Bhutan handled the first case of COVID-19 positive case. He was an American tourist when he first visited the Jigme Dorji National Referral Hospital In Thimphu Bhutan and complained of all the symptoms that went well with COVID-19. He got tested for COVID-19 and was so found positive. What do you think would have happened next? Did Bhutan criminalise him and discriminate him from our society just like Australia did?

No!!! In fact, His Majesty The King of Bhutan came personally to see to it that our American Guest in Bhutan got all the possible care, help, and support that he was entitled for as a human being no matter whether he was an American tourist or a local Bhutanese wandering in the capital town.

I live in Perth, Western Australia but I always keep in touch with local news back home. The day I Iearnt that Bhutan had one positive case of COVID-19, it was also the day I learned that His Majesty was right there ensuring that that our American Guest was given all the love and care that he deserved as a human being. It was with so much of unconditional love and care that Bhutan could send him off so well to his home in America minus the COVID -19.

In Bhutan we take care of our guests more than inside people. Our Kings from the last 113 years have taught the Bhutanese to be selfless and that’s is how the philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH) was born with the reign of His Majesty The Fourth King of Bhutan King Jigme Singye Wangchuck. He is known as the Bodhisattva King of Bhutan. The King who took care of the American Guest is known as People’s King in Bhutan and he is none other than King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk. At a time like this Bhutanese should be actually celebrating a national occasion on behalf of the birth of our second Royal Child but Bhutan didn’t do so because the King was busy looking after the strategic plans for preventing the spread of COVID -19 amongst his people. Bhutan lost one of the joyous celebrations in the history of Bhutan yet we would be celebrating one of the best examples of selflessness and the quality of selfless leadership.

Dear ScoMo, when you announced very vehemently on 4^th April 2020 that International Students should go back home, I heard many people say that it was not surprising of ScoMo for reasons I really don’t know but well I was so hurt and surprised that a prime minister of a country would give such a blatant statement in a press conference.

I am an international student here in Perth. Having done my Masters in Community Development for the last two years at Murdoch University, I have contributed near to AUD 60,000 as tuition fees and almost AUD 16000 as tax as a family. I have my children whose fees I have equally paid in double the amount as mine depending upon their courses. Mr. ScoMo, while you said that International students should have come prepared you should also realise that while they came prepared and paid their fees and taxes on time, they also had to depend on some causal and part-time jobs to sustain themselves during their course of living here in Australia. This was the sunny part that was shown to attract every single international student. I am a very example of this prospectus. I had the option to go anywhere in the world to study but I thought Australia provided one of the best options being a Multicultural society.

Now when the international students heard your address to the nation, everyone got dumb for one moment. Then they started to think and analyze and realized that you made one of the world’s most racist speeches of the century especially amidst such a crisis when people deserved all your love and care even though you didn’t have to show it but express it.

Dear Mr. ScoMo, international students contributed AUD 32 billion in 2018 into Australia’s economy as per the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures. The then the Universities Australia Deputy Chief Executive Anne-Marie Lansdown said that international students brought vast benefits to Australians and the nation by contributing to the entire Australian economy, generating jobs, supporting wages, and lifting the living standards of Australians. A very powerful quote that Lansdown said was ‘Australians should be fiercely proud of this incredibly important industry. They should also be fiercely protective of it.’

But then where is the part about protecting international students when they need it the most? It is so disheartening to hear you say that they should make their way home when the weather was too bad while you didn’t mind them having here to make hay when the sun shone. According to the 2019 statistic, international students contributed AUD 34.9 billion a year for Australia, supporting more than 240,000 jobs across the country. The Chief of Universities then mentioned the important role that international students play in the economy of Australia.

Everyone aggress that it is so much more than contributing to the local economy by international students. They feel that international students contribute to local communities, society, global outlook, and the economy. More than anything else, Australians benefit from powerful personal, cultural, diplomatic, and trade ties. It was also heard quoting that when these international students return home they join the global network of alumni and those who stay prove to be the highly skilled graduates needed in the nations’ economy. As of recent updates, international students contribute to 130,000 skilled migrants to the workforce leading to AUD 8.7 billion GDP in Australia’s economy.

Now when the Australian economy is affected severely by the pandemic COVID-19, you are all up to protect your citizens and residents. You forgot that those international students who contributed to the larger chunk of your GDP now lost their jobs, are left homeless, and not in the position to pay their rents. Their positions in the wok place are given to their citizens and residents. And then there comes the announcement that international students should make their way home.

So Mr. ScoMo, on what humanitarian ground and the economic ground did you make your statement that international students should make their way home especially when you know that almost all the transit routes are locked down? I am just so curious to know whether you made just a casual remark or whether you really made that statement. Did you even realize the kind of panic you created amongst all the international students here in Australia and their family members back home across the world? The day was almost like a doomsday as if the entire international students got caught in the myriad of COVID-19. Personally, it didn’t affect me so much but by virtue of being a community leader, I had to bear the greatest brunt of the announcement. I have never answered so many calls in my entire 4 decades of life than I did on the doomsday of your announcement.

Most sincerely,

Karma Choden

Some causes of stressful situation that people should be aware of while in a foreign land

(Photo Courtesy: Dr. Marvin Marshall’s ‘Without Stress’)

A few days back, a 41 year old Bhutanese man is known to have committed suicide in Perth, Western Australia. I don’t know anything about the incidence and what prompted the guy to commit such dreadful act.  What is alarming is the reaction of the people on social media. Some people thought he was too weak and a complete loser and some thought he committed a sin while many empathized with the family members who were left behind.

I was like ‘one never know what his life was like and what he was going through. If he took such a big step he must have reached to a level where he couldn’t take it any more which most probably could have led to that ultimate fateful night where he had to take his own life.’ Seriously, we the people are so fast to pass judgment and conclude things without even knowing a wee bit of the person’s emotional, mental, physical and financial state. And at a time like this, all we can do is pray for his soul to rest in peace and pray for strength for the surviving family members to take the situation in their stride. It is a very difficult time and the least we can do is to stop passing judgment.

Having said this what prompted me to write this blog is to create some awareness to our fellow countrymen (I do know there are many aspiring to come to the other side of the world) about the expected and variable causes of a stressful situation that one might come across in a foreign land depending upon individual’s resilience and adaptability to the situation.

Following are some of the major reasons for a stressful situation:

1. University life coupled with work (not able to balance Uni and work)
2. Work factor
3. Relationship issues (some couples stay separately)
4. Addiction to alcohol and gambling especially Crown Casino.
5. Addiction to party life
6. Lack of time management
7. Financial stress (Not being able to make the required fee payment)
8. Emotional contacts back home with either parents or a close person
9. Loneliness especially if one is reserved and not an out-going person
10. Health issues which ultimately affect all other aspects of life
11. Lack of good friendships
12. Lack of coping mechanism

Interesting work is a huge factor for a stressful situation. For a beginner, not finding one leads to stress and then as one advances it is either the over work or having to manage work at odd hours that leads to stress. Or it can even be not finding the right kind of work. I have met a couple of people who confided in me about their stressful situation and not being able to manage it. Most cases were related to academic issues and work issues. In the former case people were not able to manage the timely completion of the assignments and in the later case people were not able to find a proper job that would ensure their survival in the foreign land. The combination can be very dreadful and may lead to anxiety and depression.

However, let me also say that there are a number of Bhutanese who are doing very well. Some of our colleagues who are on permanent residency (PR) visas are running business as in Consultancy firms, Hotel, installation of solar lighting system, renting houses, mobile restaurant and some even sell home made food from home on either pick up or delivery service basis  (Few that I know as of now). Some of our fellow men who are not on PR but very innovative have started cleaning business which not only keeps them busy but also employs other Bhutanese people. Many go through one or more of the stressful situation that I have mentioned above but they rise above every difficult situation proving the resilience of the Bhutanese people.

But not all people can handle every situation in the same manner and this is one reason why I write this piece because every life is precious and I want every fellow Bhutanese to come mentally, emotionally and physically prepared if they decide to explore the other side of the world.

Nuchu and I

The portrait that I see every day I wake up

And the same that I see before I go to bed

Making my heart miss a beat and my pulse at hold

Oh! The excruciating pain and a feeling of helplessness

‘Did I make a wrong decision?’ is the question I ask myself

I battle against all the odd feelings racing in my mind

Console myself that ‘whatever happens, happens for the best’

But this poor ordinary being is beyond any self-comforting messages

I go to University, attend the classes and try to bury myself in assignments

I go to work late in the evenings or dawn at times

Just so I can pass my days without thinking about him

But damn it! It is only for a little while I found

There has not been a single day that I didn’t scroll up his photos

And each session is as painful as the next

I shout out to him when I am all alone

At least I don’t fear being judged by anyone

‘Nobu-the-pug’ on instagram posts makes me miss my Nuchu more

I feel my nuchu would be basking in the same love and care

Had I not left him in the first place

Makes me even more guilty and unforgivable by the day

What is worst is I miss my Bumo too

She was just 48 days old when we brought her in

She was my Nuchu’s one of the four surviving children

The one that was destined to be with my family

The love of the family, the center of attention

My daughter, son, and hubby loved them more

Did I break everyone’s connection?

The fact I am more guilty of

I am like ‘can fate be any unkinder than this’?

But then to take it positively, fate has been kinder

Especially giving my Nuchu and Bumo a new family

Something that eases my own pain- a cover up I guess.

What it means to be in Australia- The so called DOLLAR fetching zone.

“Even now when I hear that sound of the mobile ringtone, it gives me a painful feeling. I hate that sound. That sound is connected to a very difficult and painful part of my life in Australia”, says Wangmo with tears almost forming in her eyes and voice breaking off making me go teary eyed too.

Wangmo had come to Perth some four years back with her husband Kinley carrying with them lots of dreams. ‘Life was not so easy. We were without works for around 5 months. We worried a lot and we had to grab every little work that came by our way even if it was for a penny. We had to do that to make a living. ‘

I am told that they used to get up in the middle of the night to go to work. Wangmo says that thinking of those days scares her now for the very fact that they used to go to work in half sleep that too driving about 30 to 1 hour distance to the workplace. It indeed sounds so dangerous now.

They labored and worked hard spending sleepless nights and putting their lives at risk to earn the few dollars that they made and slowly got their way up to where they are today in Perth.

Today Wangmo and Kinley can happily take a month off from work and go on a vacation to Thailand with children and family member joining them from Bhutan. They have worked hard to send hard currency home enough to buy a land for themselves, send their children to private schools and also support their parents back home.

Like Wangmo and Kinley, there are many Bhutanese who came with big dreams but started with struggles. A Bhutanese who has been in Perth for the last four years and who doesn’t want to be named here says, “we struggled so hard without works and with the little money we got we could not dare spend on anything luxurious. Vegetables are very expensive and chilies even more. For us, chilies were a luxury. When we finally could afford to buy a chilly each to bite with our meals, it was like reaching in heaven.”

But our fellow Bhutanese have found the way out and today everyone who is out here in down under has a decent job, make a decent earning and lives a decent life. And that decency would mean getting up at 2 am in the morning to go to work for the morning shift, doing a round of days chores and back to evening work at 5 p.m. This is just one example of a work schedule. Every single cent that the Bhutanese in Australia make is a result of their sweat and blood. It is the result of their lack of sleep, lack of food on time, working round the clock and so much of other sacrifices and compromises.

Besides the regular works that our Bhutanese take up, there are quite a few enterprising ones who have taken to sales of local products such as doma, (betel nut or areca nut), ara, (local alcohol brewed at home), dried chilies, and other delicacies such as juma (homemade sausage), momo (dumpling) and all during festive occasions or gatherings. People have started growing local chilies in pots at home, which not only suffice their taste buds but also fulfill the taste buds of many Bhutanese in Perth. A piece of doma would cost $1, which is equivalent to round of Nu.50 back home. A bottle of ara would cost $20 which is equivalent to round of Nu. 1000 in Bhutan. Doesn’t it sound so tempting to do doma and ara business than to slog for $20 per hour? (The minimum wage)

All in all, you will find a little Bhutan in Bentley and Wembley. If you take a little walk around the corner to IGA in Glendalough, it is just like walking to a local store in Thimphu. Every single customer is a Bhutanese. You will find that one in every five person on the street is a Bhutanese. If you go to Herdsmen Parade 47 and 49 and you will find that every next house is occupied by Bhutanese either in shared mode or single occupancy.

However, please note that life at the beginning is not so easy. Little did I realize that I would be living the story of Wangmo and Kinley just a few months after my arrival in Perth. The stress that you go through for not getting work is depressing at worst and the conditions under which you have to work is needless to mention. My hubby and I drove several times in sleep in the middle of the night or at the wee hour in the morning either to work or back from work. Many a times you have to put your safety and life at risk.

You meet all kinds of people-our very own people here in Perth. Friends become strangers and strangers become friends.

Gumtree is the buzz word around for newcomers. The seasoned and the experts will only tell you to download the app and look for work on Gumtree. You really think that you will find some works through Gumtree and you spend hours every day till it hurts your eyes and fingers to find something suitable for you. You then apply online as advised by the seniors. You keep on applying a million times and wait for responses. As time moves on you learn that applying for works though Gumtree is just a myth. You know that it is not going to work yet you keep searching and applying with a hope that someday a miracle might happen. But time only proves that it doesn’t happen. Time tells you that you need connections to get work. It is the recommendations that get you work not the countless applications you make on the Gumtree or Indeed, SEEK Jobs, Perth Jobs, Job Search and many more job seeking apps.

Remember, when it comes to work, Bhutanese are by far very reluctant to help for reasons I really don’t know but I did hear of some rumours of the past of how people used to snatch jobs from each other and off course many ill intended stories. Not even our people will help you find a job if you are not the real siblings. One has to find your way the hard way.

If you see greener grass in down under and plan to come this way, know that you need to possess the following attributes:

1. Be emotionally and mentally prepared and strong enough to go through the stress of not finding the work for quite sometime after your arrival in Perth. Some I believe spend almost a year to get job while some lucky ones get job on their arrival.
2. Make sure you have someone in down under who will not hesitate to recommend you for work.
3. You should possess driver’s license and be able to drive in Australia. You don’t have a job if you cant drive.
4. Be prepared to take up any job. If you come with the values ‘no job is too small or too big’ nothing like it.
5. Be prepared to sacrifice your sleep and shift your meal times. In other words be ready to move out of your comfort zone.

Once you are here, you will find that the grass is indeed not green on this side but then your positive outlook and the dollars that you get in hands will motivate you to keep going.

By doing this story, I am hoping that our fellow Bhutanese back home will know that life is not all about glitters in Australia. I want our people to know that they cannot afford to dance on the dollars sent from Australia. That would be the greatest crime against humanity. This is also a preparation message to any newcomers to The Land of Kangaroos.

The last and the best part for the Bhutanese in Perth happened on 21^st February 2018 when the Bhutanese in Perth came together to celebrate the 38^th Birth Anniversary of our beloved His Majesty The King of Bhutan. It was the most befitting gift His Majesty gave to his fellow Bhutanese residing outside of Bhutan. We were surrounded with our Bhutanese celebrities like singers Lhamo Dukpa and Namgay Jigs, actor and actress Sonam Tenzin and Sherab Lhamo and the most famous comedian Gem Tshering accompanied by the officials from Royal Bhutan Embassy, Bangkok. I don’t know about the Bhutanese gatherings in the past because I am also very much new here and this is my second visit to a mass Bhutanese gathering in Perth my first one being the visit by his eminence Khamtrul Rimpoche. However, I am told this is the greatest ever congregation of Bhutanese and it was a very momentous occasion to listen to His Majesty’s words of wisdom through the harbingers of His Majesty’s message. From what I could gather, following are the messages from His Majesty in a gist:

1. Our Bhutanese in Australia are contributing hugely to the economy of the country through the hard currency that they remit to Bhutan.
2. They create a very financially stable family and social life back home.
3. Parents are able to support their children and children are able to support their parents.
4. They create employment opportunity back home. The jobs that they leave behind are seats left for someone else.
5. They get exposure to the third country, widen their horizon of learning and also bring rich experiences with them back home.
6. No matter where our people go, they will always use the Bhutanese intrinsic intelligence and be able to survive amongst the fittest.
7. Most importantly they promote friendship and maintain good foreign relationship with Australia government at the same time maintaining our own identity.
8. Bhutanese in Australia have proved as the best ambassadors of Bhutan.

This is to our entire fellow Bhutanese not only in Perth but also in the whole of Australia and elsewhere outside of Bhutan that His Majesty The King is aware of the hardship and contributions we make to our country. It doesn’t matter what kind of jobs we take up because there is nothing called small or big jobs. What matters is that we make a difference.

Hats off to all the hard working Bhutanese who sacrifice their personal comfort zone for the sake of larger interest.