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Defy Conventional Wisdom - VIP Mini Story

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the mini story this month. This mini story is about Chim-chim again. Oh, our old buddy Chim-chim. Chim-chim the monkey, the famous monkey, the rich monkey, the super rich monkey in fact. In fact, Chim-chim and Heva’s company become so successful that he becomes a billionaire. Chim-chim becomes a billionaire, Heva too, but this story is about Chim-chim.

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So Chim-chim becomes a billionaire and he’s got tons of money and he gets news stories written about him. One day the media writes a story with the headline ‘Chim-chim still lives in a tree!” and in the article they criticize him for still living in the same, little, small, simple tree, even through he’s rich and famous now. So Chim-chim becomes quite upset. In fact, Chim-chim feels very insecure about his humble life.

Now, that word ‘insecure’, to feel insecure, it’s kind of the opposite of confident, in fact.

You understand the word confident. Confident, you feel strong and relaxed about yourself, about your ability, about your life. Well, the opposite of that is to have a lot of doubts and worries, to feel weak and stressed about it. That’s insecure.

So Chim-chim feels how?

He feels insecure.

And what does Chim-chim feel insecure about?

Well, he feels insecure about his humble life.

Does he feel secure and confident or does he feel insecure?

He feels insecure.

And what does he feel insecure about?

About his humble life. He feels insecure about his humble life.

So what kind of life does he have?

He has a humble life.

There’s a new word possibly, ‘humble’. What does humble mean? ‘Humble’ really means simple. It’s kind of this idea of simply. It’s a positive word. It’s a very positive word. Humble is this idea of simple and it’s the opposite of arrogant. So ‘arrogant’ means you think that you’re great. Like I’m awesome, I’m perfect, I’m wonderful and you’re always talking about how great you are all the time. You’re always telling everybody I’m great. I’m great. That’s arrogant.

Well, the opposite of that is humble. Humble is where you do not say great things about yourself and if you have a humble life it means you live a very simple life. You’re not wearing super expensive clothes and trying to show everybody that you’re awesome or that you’re great. It’s kind of the opposite.

So does Chim-chim have a humble life or does he have a very we’ll say extravagant life?

He has a very humble life.

‘Extravagant’ means rich. It means lots and lots and lots of stuff. It’s the opposite of simple, opposite of humble. It has this idea of rich and full of amazing stuff. Like an extravagant life you’d have lots of money and cars and jewelry and all that kind of stuff.

So how does Chim-chim feel about his humble life?

He feels insecure.

Worried, doubtful, ashamed, those kind of things, that’s what insecure means. He feels insecure about his humble life because he’s very rich and famous. He’s supposed to be rich and famous, but he lives in a simple tree. So Chim-chim decides to make a change. He says to himself “I need to raise my status.” So status, what is status? ‘Status’ is like a social level in this situation. It really means like condition or situation, but when we’re talking about socially it means your social level. That’s a common phrase ‘social status. So upper class would be one social status, middle class, that kind of thing.

So what does Chim-chim say to himself?

He says “I need to raise my status. I need to raise my status. I can’t live a humble life anymore.”

So why does he say this?

Well, because he feels insecure. He feels insecure about his status. The newspaper criticizes him for living in a simple little tree, so he feels insecure about his humble life.

And what does he say? He says I need to raise my…?

Status. “I need to raise my status.”

So the first thing he does is he buys a mansion. Chim-chim buys a huge mansion with 120 acres of land.

So a ‘mansion’ is a super large expensive house. Now, in some parts of Asia, for example, they’ll use this word to describe like an apartment building or something, but in the United States we do not use that word for apartment buildings or anything like that.

In the United States a mansion is a single home that’s very, very, very, very big. It has the idea of rich and expensive, big, all those ideas.

So Chim-chim buys a mansion, a huge expensive house on 120 acres of land. We measure land in the United States with acres. I can’t tell you exactly how big an acre is, but a normal house might have half an acre of land. In a normal kind of subdivision, a normal suburb, maybe half an acre. An acre would be a pretty good size of land, so 120 acres that’s a lot. So he buys a mansion on 120 acres of land.

What kind of house does he buy?

A mansion.

And who buys a mansion?

Chim-chim.

And why does he buy a mansion?

Because he wants to raise his status and he feels insecure about his humble tree.

So he buys a mansion on how many acres of land?

One-hundred and twenty. He buys a mansion that is on top of, that is on 120 acres of land. So he gets a big house, plus 120 acres of land.

So does he buy a very small humble house or a mansion?

He buys a mansion. He buys a super huge expensive house on 120 acres of land.

And who buys the mansion, one more time?

Chim-chim. Chim-chim buys the mansion on 120 acres of land.

That’s his first status symbol.

That’s a common phrase that you may know ‘status symbol.’ ‘Status symbol’ means exactly what you would think it means. It’s a symbol of status. So what does that mean?

‘Status’ means your kind of economic level or social level. A ‘symbol’ is just something that shows it. So a status symbol is something that shows what your level is.

We actually use it usually mostly for things which are expensive and which show like a high social status. It would show that you’re wealthy, that you’re rich. So a Ferrari, a very expensive car, that’s a status symbol. A mansion is a status symbol. A huge house with 50 rooms or something, that’s a status symbol. It’s a symbol. It shows everybody that you are rich.

So what is his first status symbol?

A mansion.

And what is his next status symbol?

Hum…

Actually, his next status symbol is a trophy girlfriend. He gets a trophy girlfriend.

So this is kind of slang phrase. Actually, a lot of times they’ll say trophy wife and this is a common thing you’ll see like in gossip newspapers or something. That somebody who is super rich they will get what they call a ‘trophy wife’, a ‘trophy girlfriend’, and I guess the opposite is possible too, a trophy boyfriend or a trophy husband.

What that means, ‘trophy’ is something that you win, right? Usually we use it for sports.

If you win the championship game then your team gets the trophy. It’s a symbol. The team that wins the World Cup they get that little trophy with the soccer ball on top.

That’s a trophy. So, again, it’s a symbol of success. So a trophy girlfriend, it’s a girlfriend who’s just a symbol.

The idea is that the person, the guy in this case, Chim-chim, does not really love this person, but just wants them because they look good. So a trophy girlfriend is usually much younger, super beautiful, like a model or something. They have them to show look, I’m so rich I can have this super beautiful, super young girl. That’s how it’s used.

That’s the normal thing.

So what’s his second status symbol?

His second status symbol is a trophy girlfriend.

So is this a real girlfriend that he loves deeply?

No, no, no, no, it’s not a real girlfriend that he loves deeply. This is a trophy girlfriend, just for show. Just to show everybody.

His third status symbol is what? What does he get?

Well, he gets a lot of bling. Chim-chim gets lots and lots of bling.

‘Bling’ is another slang term. Basically it means jewelry, but it kind of has the idea of very big jewelry that everybody can see. So bling would not be like a tiny little diamond ring or a very simple ring. It would be like some huge ring with a massive diamond and huge necklaces with gold and silver and jewels. So he gets lots and lots of bling and he starts wearing lots of jewelry all the time everywhere. When he is out walking in public he shows everybody his diamond ring, then his necklaces. He has lots and lots of bling.

So who gets a lot of bling?

Chim-chim. Chim-chim buys a lot of bling.

Does he wear the bling when he goes out?

Yes, he wears it all the time. He wears the bling, the expensive showy jewelry all the time.

Does he buy bling for his trophy girlfriend too?

Yes, he does. He buys her lots of big, large pieces of jewelry as well. So they have lots and lots of bling.

Who has lots of bling?

Chim-chim. He buys a lot of bling, a lot of very big jewelry. So he has three status symbols, a mansion, a trophy girlfriend and lots and lots of bling.

So does he become much happier?

No, poor Chim-chim he doesn’t.

Instead, he feels really lonely, poor Chim-chim. In his new mansion which is super huge with just his trophy girlfriend that he doesn’t really love wearing all his jewelry he becomes lonely. He feels much more lonely and so, finally, Chim-chim realizes his mistake and he says to himself “I’m going back to the old hood.” So ‘hood’ is a little bit of slang. It means neighborhood. It’s just a short version of the word neighborhood. So it means he’s going to go back to his old neighborhood, back to living in his tree. So he sells his mansion, he breaks up with his girlfriend, he gives away his jewelry and he moves back to his old hood.

Where does he move back to?

He moves back to his old hood, his old neighborhood.

So where will you hear this word? You’ll hear this word in movies now sometimes. You know people say the hood, the hood, going to my old hood. It just means neighborhood.

So does he move back to his old neighborhood or does he stay in the mansion?

He moves back to his old hood, back to his old neighborhood.

Does he move back to his humble life, his humble tree, his simple little tree?

Yes, he does. He moves back to his simple humble tree, his simple humble neighborhood and his good true friends and he’s much happier.

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And that is the end of our mini story. See you again, bye-bye.