全文檢索
Home>Service> Awardees of Fervent Global Love of Lives Award> 14th Fervent Global Love of Lives Award 2011> The first good of Taichung─Lai Chien-chuan
Love in heart ‧ no barrier in life
      Chien-chuan Lai is the vice manager of the middle area of Genius Insurance Brokers Co. Ltd. He used to be the director of the boarders of many foundations, the chairman of parent committee of elementary school and junior high school, the chairman of Taichung Tung Hsing Lions Club. Now, he is also the consultant of Taichung City Government, the honorable chairman of the board directors of Chung Cheng Culture and Education Foundation, and the Rotarian of Taichung Tatun Rotary. He donates up to tens of millions dollars every year. He especially stresses cultural education and delinquency problems, and thus usually gives money and helps promote various non-profit activities. What's more, he counsels youths and students on joining healthy activities, and also helps schools do consulting work of adolescents. His thoughts and actions of contributing to the society all come from his austere farm family. Since he was very young, he had aspired to improve the family's economic condition and the poor life of the family. He began his career life after graduating from high school. When confronting different challenges of work, he always self- motivated and tried his best. This made him have proud achievement in his career life. However, he never forgets his origin, and knows to contribute to the society. In the meantime of earning tens of millions dollars per year, he established Chung Cheng Culture and Education Foundation in 1997 in order to positively serve the disadvantaged and help poor students. He continually donated to Taiwan Fund of Children and Families of Taichung, assisting to build “Transitional Placement”. He also took part in over twenty non-profit clubs and served as the superintendent or the director of the boarder. In the year 2000, he was awarded the second The Best Society Contribution Award of Insurance Summa Cum Laude named “Insurance Faith Hope Love Award” and The Honor Award of Representative of National Good Person Good Deed in 2002 .
 
Rural child of poor generation
      Chien-chuan Lai was born in Tatu Mountain of Nantun in 1958. Those days, people of Taiwanese rural villages were generally poor and received very limited information from outside. Nonetheless, they took care of and helped others and made their village full of warmness and friendliness. Growing up in such a simple and pure environment, Chien-chuan was kindhearted, assiduous and long-suffering hard-working.
      Chien-chuan had grown up in an extended family since infancy. He had to share responsibility for the house since he was five: swept floors, washed dishes, pulled herds of cows to rivers or hills to let them graze. The elders even began to work at dawn, rested at dust every day. They depended on the weather to earn their living. That means, working hard didn't mean they would enjoy harvests. The elders, however, never complained and always worked hard to plow and sow, even though they still lived an austere life. Although his parents worked hard, they could only earn their tucker. Seeing his parents' lifelong poor life, little Chien-chuan began to think about his responsibility and duty to the family.
      Chien-chuan started to accept compulsory education in 1968. The remote village he lived was on the corner between Taichung County and Taichung City . There wasn't any elementary school near his house. On the first day of student register, he followed his older sister and walked three to four kilometers, crossing two villages to arrive the school. As a new student, teachers simply said some welcome sentences and let him go home. Because his sister was still in class, it was this sever-year- old child's first time to walk home on such a long way. Luckily, right before his formal school starting day, a mini elementary school was established in his village. He was, finally, not afraid of going to school.
      Since he started his elementary school life, he not only went to school to study, but also did endless farming and housework. When seeing other children played together during weekends, he really wanted to join them. He hid this thought inside his heart after thinking of his duty that he should take care of his younger siblings and set fire to cook rice by dusk.
      When being on the second grade, the extended family was divided due to some reasons. As a lack of cooperation and division of labor of the extended family, during the first years after the family division, Chien-chuan's parents not only had to feed the family of eight, but groveled to relatives and were given a long face when borrowing their children's school register fees for the new semesters. This forced the three elder sisters to be housemaids or did some handy-work to earn meager salary for the family after graduating from elementary school. Seeing so, as the eldest son in the family, Chien-chuan had a strong sense of responsibility. He told himself that he would work hard to make money in the future and never made his parents live bitter life. He aspired that after graduating from school, he would make a good showing at work, work hard to improve the family's economic condition and satisfy the family's needs. Furthermore, he would never forget where his happiness came from and return the hospitality he had received. He would help other needy juveniles and make poor children have opportunity to study.
      After going to junior high school, in order to share the burden of family livelihood, he went to factories to do part time job or did labor work with high salary every winter break and summer vacation. In his opinion, he didn't care how bitter the work made he feel. What he cared was lesson his family's burden. On weekends, he took vegetables or tomatoes planted at home to the market. He learned to interact with people and learned to sell through other vege stands. Despite being shy and embarrassed in the beginning, he gradually found confidence and received approval and encouragement from customers' positive replies.
 
Learn with humbleness, strive to be better
      After graduating from high school, Chien-chuan worked in Popular Bookstore. After joining the army, he had gained more and more experiences through working in publishers and bookstores through learning from the basic level. From promoting the sale of series street to street to managing status, he was no longer introvert, shy and timid. He had changed. He won the first place of personal accomplishment and the best team leader every year. His annual salary was even over a million. Moreover, he read often and read many good books. He thus accumulated a diversity of abundant knowledge for himself.
      As a person willing to take challenges, after he began working for National Taiwan Life in 1986, he again achieved the peak of his business through his sincerity. Meanwhile, he was always in others' shoes and used his work experience of exploitation, training, management to promote his business. During this period, he still cared about his family life. He kept joined his children's activities of the parent committee. He thus knew that there were many disadvantaged families suffering from a poor environment. Their children couldn't concentrate on studying. He couldn't help but keep bearing this in mind. The next year, he became the chairman of the parent committee. He began to raise funds and collect all relevant resources. Then, in 1998, he established Chung Cheng Culture and Education Foundation to help poor and needy children with school fees and board in a long term. Meanwhile, he continually donated Taiwan Fund of Children and Families of Taichung, assisting to build “Transitional Placement”. He has joined over twenty non-profit clubs as the superintendent or the director of the boarder for a long time. In the year 2000, he was awarded the second The Best Society Contribution Award of Insurance Summa Cum Laude named “Insurance Faith Hope Love Award” and The Honor Award of Representative of National Good Person Good Deed in 2002 .
 
Fulfill himself through helping others
      In the year 2003, Chien-chuan and his friends in the same camp established Genius Insurance Brokers Co. Ltd. He became the director of the board and vice manager of the middle area. Through his previous experience, he always keeps the faith of mindfulness, honest, profession and responsibility. He is in every customer's shoes and made a complete plan for each of them. He reckons insurance business as “Fulfill oneself through helping others.” Through continually self-cultivation, he realized the meaning of “it is more bless to give than to receive.” He also realized that the main purpose of money was to share and re-make. Furthermore, if people kept being simple and sincere to care about the society and help other people, not only could they make personal effect, but also a brighter world. They would continually self-promoted and grow up.
      Being a Buddhist and extendedly reading Buddhist texts, Chien-chuan thus has deeper understanding on life and living. His life philosophy is “there's love and there's not barrier.” He sincerely said, “People with a rich heart never feel bitter and lonely. A rich heart means a heart with love. The meaning of mundane is that if there's love, there's no barrier. A saying goes that don't fuss too much and always give out things sincerely. Being alive, what to be afraid is not living without money, but without friends. Only the power of friendship lasts forever.”