Raymond (not his real name) turned 52 recently. Although successful – his car is the size of my bedroom – he still has regrets.

“From my 20s to my late 40s,” Raymond explains, “I used to work in the civil service. And to be fair ah, even then they always warned us to upgrade. But in my mind, upgrading was only to earn more pay. To get promotion. That’s all. I was happy, so I didn’t bother.

Then there came a time when I had some problems with my higher-ups. I couldn’t stand it, and I left. And in the private sector, I had to pay for my complacency.

In the ’90s it was a big deal that I was IT literate, can use Word and make Power Points. Today that is taken as a given. It never even appears on a resume anymore. And there was no employer that needed a very general skill set, which was what I had.”

“Luck, I tell you. Pure luck. I had a family friend who started a business and hired me. And even then I struggled for the next seven or eight years, to learn a new trade from scratch.

If you think it is troublesome to learn something new when you are in your 30s, it is 10 times worse when you are 40 something.

For seven or eight years my pay was almost halved. Lucky my daughter already finished school, if not I would have died. Seven years is a long time to be suffering. I deprived my family of a lot of things.

And I still regret it to this day. So much wasted time and pain. If I’d just studied a bit in my 20s or 30s, I would not have gone through hell. Those are years I will never get back. However much I earn now I cannot buy back that lost time.”

“If you want to study for another diploma, if you want to learn a new trade, do it now. Do it when you are young. If you want to wait, it will get harder. You will get more commitments as you grow older, and it is much harder to learn new things.

So don’t say you don’t have the time to do it now. If not now then when? Later will be even worse.

And don’t be complacent. Even if you think your job is an iron rice bowl, iron can still be broken. Nothing is guaranteed in this world. If you become redundant tomorrow, what can you do out there? If nothing, then you better get ready to learn the same lesson as me.”

Admittedly, Mark Seah will only be turning 50 in October. But he’s veteran enough – he’s worked in the same position for over 15 years.

“I am not adaptable,” he says, “And when I am asked to take on something outside my job scope I get very nervous. I still remember, at one point, they were looking for someone to do sales operations – a new position in the company.

The job was to track the sales in different regions, talk to different sales directors, and find out which regions were doing the best. I was offered this position, and the salary was very big. About three times more than I’m earning now.

I turned it down. I said ‘I know what I’m good at, I don’t want to try a job where everything is so uncertain.’ And my boss actually told me, he said I was crazy. He told me he recommended me himself, because I was a good worker even if I wasn’t a perfect fit for that job.

But I just refused because it was outside my comfort zone. And now, so many years later, here I am still doing the same thing. And I really regret it.

Over the course of my career, I’ve had many opportunities to do new things. Every time the fear of not doing a good job, of stepping outside my comfort zone, stopped me from doing it. And only now, when it’s too late, I realise how much it has cost me.”

“When you are given the opportunity to do something new, just go and do it. Don’t be the one who’s always saying no-no-no all the time. Try to open your eyes and realise that your boss is giving you a push up the ladder.

Maybe you are afraid because it’s new, maybe you even feel angry because it’s extra work. But if you refuse, then next time when someone gets picked for promotion, don’t bother to complain. You were given the chance to shine, and you decided to stay comfortable instead.

Anne (not her real name) is a Personal Assistant, who’s intending to retire in two years. She’s finally taking the big plunge and taking up jewellery making, even if it means a big pay cut.

“For much of my career, I looked at nothing except money and work-life balance,” Anne says, “But now toward the end of it, I feel quite sad. I have always had good bosses. And my job pays well while giving me a lot of free time, so maybe I a bit of a complainer. I admit that.

But after 30 years in the workforce, I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished anything. I haven’t run a company, I haven’t made a famous invention, I haven’t appeared in any magazines…it’s been a good job, but it feels hollow at the end of it. That’s why I finally decided to quit and do something with my life.”

“I think you have to make your own opportunities. You wait for them and they will never appear, or they will appear exactly when you are not in a position to seize them. And part of making your own opportunities means having a certain vision, a goal of what you want to accomplish.

And if you think about it, the accomplishments will lead to money on their own. If you do well, you get to set your price.”

“If you chase money, you will end up with a mediocre amount of money and a mediocre life. Think if that’s where you want to be, once you’re 50.

If you chase accomplishments, you will probably be poor and suffering for a long time. But at least you would have made some difference in the world, did something that you can be admired for.”