I certainly wouldn't recommend my life to most people--and my heart goes out to those who have recently been condemned to a simplicity they never needed or wanted. But I'm not sure how much outward details or accomplishments ever really make us happy deep down. The millionaires I know seem desperate to become multimillionaires, and spend more time with their lawyers and their bankers than with their friends (whose motivations they are no longer sure of). And I remember how, in the corporate world, I always knew there was some higher position I could attain, which meant that, like Zeno's arrow, I was guaranteed never to arrive and always to remain dissatisfied.
No doubt his description of corporate America--or the corporate world in virtually any country, is apt. It is an endless ladder to climb, with another wrung left no matter how high one makes it. The corporate serfs who have dedicated their lives to making money for other people are forced to settle for the title on their business card or the pittance they are paid in relation to the actual hours they spend away from the people and activities they truly love. These are not the most pitiable sorts though--the ones who know what they are missing out on. The ones to be pitied are those who think their job defines their meaning in life, whose paycheck is the sum of their self-worth, and who stand ready to be anybody's mercenary for the right position and the right pay.
It is not difficult for those of us who have lived the "high life" for any period of time, driven the fancy car, lived in the expensive house, and who have left it, to realize that striving for those things was a waste of our time, a waste of our life. Time (and its ultimate consequence, Death) is the one thing I have yet to see any technology overcome. It is sure and certain for us all. We must all ask ourselves what it is we want to do with that precious time we do possess (the quantity of which is our greatest unknown). Many would argue that the austerity of "simple living" is mutually exclusive with a successful business career and financial prosperity.
The two are not mutually exclusive, but they do in fact require a most ardent dedication to discipline. The shiny objects flashed in front of those of us who do work in the world of finance are alluring, and even distracting. It would surely be easier to eschew all of them, move to the backcountry of Alaska or New Zealand with one's family, and live off the land with a stack of books as entertainment. This escape has crossed my mind on more than one occasion just this week. But this sort of escapism is a denial of our potential to do good, to utilize our talents in the most impacting way possible, and to work hard for something other than the applause of others or the number of zeroes after our net worth.
Indeed, it would be easier to live one's life by a set of rules than by a set of guidelines. Rules are hard and fast, they tell us exactly when we may and may not do something. Surely, some rules are necessary, but not too many. Living life primarily by guidelines is much more difficult. It requires a heightened sense of awareness of ourselves, of our motivations, of our own purpose in this world. It requires us to continually and relentlessly self-assess and self-criticize, painful and often depressing tasks that expose our weaknesses and yes, our sins too. But we will only be two-dimensional beings if we live life only by a set of hard and fast rules that prohibit us from experiencing so much that life has to offer, though in moderation.
In the context of our present subject, this means we must be willing to suit up and engage in an imperfect world in order that it might be made more perfect. Most of human life centers around our economic needs--the allocation of existing resources to maximize our collective and individual utility. Therefore the most aware, the most talented among us, must be willing to enter the vocation of business, and be the light where otherwise there seems to be so much darkness, and to make the world a better place through the seemingly mundane decisions of how to allocate certain resources the most profitably, without the central purpose of our work being our own profitability.
It is a great challenge to enter the halls of high finance and not be corrupted by money. It is a great difficulty to enter the stately conclaves where our political decisions are made and not be corrupted by power. But we must each ask ourselves that Kantian question--if not me, then who?
Austerity and prosperity are not mutually exclusive. One can be in the world of money without being destroyed by it, but it requires discipline that can only be forged through the strength of will, for none of us are born with it. Yet each decision, whether to pick up that phone call at home, whether to check our email incessantly on the weekends, these are all decisions we make at the margin. These are all decisions for which we can choose the alternative. We can cut out all of the sycophantic behavior that characterizes much of the corporate world, we can stop attending social functions and being a part of the chaos that poisons our own souls and those around us, too. We can retreat to our modest homes, share our meals with those we love, and spend our evenings immersed in some work of literature or else emptying our minds of the clutter accumulated throughout the day.
This is the challenging life we are all in some way called to--a life of engagement and not retreat. It is the only way our problems, both individual and collective will ever be solved. And it is a choice we must make daily or else the influence of laziness will drive us too far one way or the other.
[I would love to hear you feedback, so either post a comment or click my name to email me: Skinner Layne]
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