There once lived a King who was neither happy nor content despite a life filled with luxuries. The King came upon a common pleasant singing happily while he worked one day. The happiness of an ordinary man fascinated the King. Why was the ruler of the land with all the luxuries unhappy and gloomy while a lowly peasant had so much joy in his life? The King asked the man, “Why are you so happy?”
The man replied, “Your Majesty, I am a common man, but my family and I don’t need much, just warm food to fill us and a roof over our heads .”
The King was not satisfied with the man’s answer, so, later in the day, he sought advice from one of his most trusted advisers. After listening to the King’s woes, the adviser said, “Your Majesty, I believe that the man you saw has not yet been made part of The 99 Club.”
“The 99 Club? What is that?” inquired the King.
The adviser replied, “Your Majesty, to understand The 99 Club is, you first need to place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it on the man’s doorstep.”
After a tiring day working in the fields, the man returned to his house. There the man saw a bag on his doorstep. He took the bag into his home and opened it. He let out a great shout of joy when he discovered that the bag was filled with gold coins.
He began to count all the gold coins. After several counts, he was convinced that there were 99 coins. He wondered, “What could’ve happened to that last gold coin? No one would leave just 99 coins!”
He looked everywhere he could, but he did not find the 100th coin. After a while, he was exhausted and decided that he would work harder than ever to earn that gold coin and complete his collection with the 100th coin.
From that day, the man’s life was changed. He was overworked and turned grumpy. He criticized his family for not helping him achieve his goal of earning the 100th gold coin. He stopped singing while working and only thought about getting the 100th coin to complete his collection.
The King witnessed the drastic transformation in the man and was puzzled. The King asked the advisor why the man wasn’t happy and satisfied anymore. The advisor replied, “Your Majesty, the man is now a member of The 99 Club.”
He continued, “The 99 Club contains those people who have enough to be happy but are not content because they’re always striving for that extra one and telling themselves that they will be happy if they get that one final thing in my life.”
We can be happy and content with a little in our lives. But, the minute desire to get bigger and better overpowers, we forget to appreciate what we already have and enter the world of discontent and unhappiness. We lose our sleep and our happiness. We distance ourselves from the people we love while striving for better. Lack of content is what joining The 99 Club is all about.
