Millionaire cosmetic doctor Dr. Richard Teo Keng Siang developed lung cancer. In a talk to dental students, he said despite all his money and possessions, he found no joy in them on his death bed. (1)
Dr. Teo switched his specialty early on from ophthalmology to aesthetics, understanding he could make more money. Within the first year of opening his surgery clinic, he said he was was a millionaire. His clinic made millions in its first year of operations. In an excerpt from a speech, he says he’d always thought that to be happy, is to be successful, and to be successful, is to be wealthy. (2)
He created a fabulous life full of fast cars like Ferraris and spending time at the race track with friends. The cars became a status symbol, saying in one of his speeches that he drove his Ferrari around to show off to his relatives and friends. He had car club gatherings, went out to fancy restaurants with Michelin chefs. Teo also loved high-society life and spending time with celebrities, and spent time with people like Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and Miss Singapore-Universe Rachel Kum.
But it was cancer that taught him that all of that wasn’t satisfying.
Millionaire Says Materialism Doesn’t Bring Joy
Dr. Teo, a light smoker, suddenly felt a nagging pain in his back. Tests confirmed he had lung cancer and it spread to his brain and spine. His lungs were spotted with tumors. The prognosis was bleak: about 3 to 4 months left, no more than 6.
Dr. Siang’s wife Mrs. Teo told Asia One, “We were trying to deal with the shock and didn’t know what to tell our parents. The strange thing was that just the day before, he was still working out at the gym.” (1)
He fell into a depression after diagnosis, and the pain from chemotherapy took a physical and emotional toll. But he heard a kind of inner voice, Mrs. Teo says, that told him he was suffering so that he could learn. That he should help others who were suffering. And so he began to do that. He reached out to other suffering cancer patients and started to talk with other doctors and medical students. (1)
In one particular speech to dental students, he told them of his experience. That as a doctor, they would probably become numb to their patients. But he urged them not to lose sight of them as human beings with hardships. Dr. Teo told the students that there’s nothing wrong with success and it’s okay to seek after it. But he also says that he couldn’t handle the success. He became obsessed and it was all he could think about. But it brought him no joy on his death bed, he said. (2)
Teo said he saw his patients not as patients, but a source of income he could squeeze every single cent out of – and he urged those students to be different. Not to become entrenched in their emotional struggle, but to make a real effort to understand their pain. And not to make assumptions.
“Don’t get the idea that only poor people suffer,” Teo told them in his talk. “It’s not true. Because a lot of these poor people do not have much in the first place, but they are easily contented. For all you know, they’re happier than you and me.” (2)
Dr. Richard Teo Keng Siang passed away in 2012.
