If you have it, enjoy it
Different perspectives on business, success and satisfaction

Parviz Forghani
July 5, 2005
iranian.com

"I have two sales executives," my friend said while sipping his glass of gold-label Johnnie Walker. "One would is content with making 3000 bucks a month. But the other one is not. If he makes 3000, he will go for 4, and if he reaches that, he'll aim for 5. That's the way I like it; to make the 'move'. I need people more like him. What do you think?"

We were sitting in the bar on the 51st floor of a luxurious hotel with a bird's eye view of the shimmering lights of Dubai, "Middle East's Manhatan". The bar was full with the sound of music and loud giggles and laughs of pretty high-class hookers looking for wealthy businessmen.

I paused for a while and said, "My man is your other sales executive. After all, if you have ten villas and houses, you can phisically live in only one of them. If I'm not fully enjoying the dime I'm making right now, it would be a total waste to make a quarter. Indeed if I had a secure income to cover an acceptable quality of life for me and my family, I would give up the business I am in right now."

"Would you?" He asked with a tone of disbelief in his voice.

"Yes I would, undoubtedly."

"Then what would you do?"

"I would do something more fruitfull, something that gives me more satisfaction. Like in the arts, or social activities."

"Or a humanitarian job?" said the other friend of mine.

"I don' know, maybe. I don't feel fit at this age. The trade business is a little, or rather very, dirty. You need to see and understand in order to make a business successfull; you have to crash and trash many clear cut principles. So a humanitarian job may not be right for me, but there are a lot of things which can heal my inner side. Maybe I sound a little idealistic and unrealistic. I have done my best to get to my goals using merit and credit, and not through connections or short-cuts. But if you want to overcome limits, the gains are not worth the costs. I beleive in the simple principle that we work to live and not live to work."

"But then there will be no moving forward. Don't you agree?"

"Not at all," I said. "I have been movingforward all my life. There are lots of ways to go. One moves forward financially and accumulates thousands or millions of dollars and enjoys it. Good for him. But if he doesn't, then he is only a slave for his inheritors. To me, moving forward means challenging and promissing new experiences."

About
Parviz Forghani writes satire in his Neghneghoo.com.