At What Cost?

Che Diavolo???

We were reminded at work that any gambling we may engage in between teams and people as the Football World Cup approaches, must be approved by the Compliance Officer. It made me smirk as I recalled how we would go to the bookies every lunch and put money on various combinations of results. A combination of likely and a few unlikely results happening would win you a reasonable amount of money. But, sometimes large accumulations would fall through by one result failing. The taste of disappointment in this after it happened a few times in a row would make you want to win the small amount of money you’ve staked, back. How to do this? Well, one way is to take an event that’s extremely likely and almost imminent, and put lots of money on it. 9 times out of 10 it will pull through; the Dominican Republic don’t come back to beat Brazil from being 2-0 down with 5 minutes to go – not very low likelihood, and if you stake enough, you will get something reasonable back. Since the odds are very high, your winnings wouldn’t be great, but at least we’d make back what we lost earlier; or so, as ‘youngsters’ we thought we would. We needed to recover £25. Italy, who had the most water tight defence in the world, had not conceded a single goal in the 2002 Japan and South Korea World Cup of 2002, all the way to the semi-final of the tournament, and were playing again South Korea. There were 15 minutes left, and Italy were, in their usual fashion, winning 1-0. It seemed sure as anything that they would not concede. Me and my friend went to the counter, put down £200, which would win us back the £25 we had earlier lost. I don’t particularly like explaining what happened next. Yes, the Koreans went up full steam, in came a cross, and somehow their striker rose above Paolo Maldini, one of the best defenders in the history of football, and scored! We lost the money, and were pretty disappointed to say the least. Never had our eyes opened wider in disbelief. We then decided we would never stake more than £1 on a particular sequence. Within a few days we won what we had lost. We evaluated how we felt about the sport, and about this gambling. We had initial started to put money on the football because we had quite a genuine interest in it, and thought it would be fun to make some predictions, it would add some excitement. When watching the Italy game however, we didn’t care about how amazing Paolo Maldini’s last ditch tackle was, or Park’s goal was. All we cared about was our money! We didn’t care about the process, we cared about the result.

If we analyse further, the £200 investment yielded nothing. The few £’s investment yielded over £200. Life is like this. Sometimes so much is invested into big things. These seem like the most important.

The Chopper

The sound of the chopper as it gets closer becomes clearer and clearer to everyone; there is anticipation to see who comes in. Eventually, and a elderly but polished looking figure enters with a lady. They are escorted by three people to their table and offered towels to refresh themselves from the journey. They're then served several rounds of refreshments and starters, followed by over a dozen gourmet delicacies along with the finest spirits. A weary, pale figure, knowing he is safe, relaxes in the comforts of the shelter he has taken; it is clear in his eyes. Thousands and thousands of Hong Kong dollars is simply no issue for the momentary peace afforded. What was the real cost of this enjoyment?

The young banker enjoys his night out with the lads, with scores of beautiful women from all over Asia surrounding them. Their toned bodies, tailored for enjoyment; they seem like they can forget whatever else they did during the day and just enjoy. Then as the planes depart for the weekend holiday, anticipation is in the air once again. The excitement of getting away boils. What is the real cost of this enjoyment?

Meanwhile, back in the dojo, the students line up, bow multiple times to pay their respects to the dojo, to the sensei, and to each other. There is a brotherly spirit, and the cost is minimal. Repetition of technique, again and again and again. Improvisation of the same technique, in different situations with different people brings a deeper satisfaction to one. What is the cost of this feeling?

Small everyday deeds

What does a set of martial arts classes for a year cost in comparison with a few holidays? What do they return? What is the longevity of the return? Now am not saying stop going on holiday! They're also fun and such rejevenation is important sometimes. But on the whole we certainly overinvest mentally, emotionally, and financially in things that have a very futile return, and underinvest in those things that have deeper, long lasting returns. If we live consciously of this, then in our work and outside dealings we will feel a greater deal of satisfaction, which will make us simultaneously happy and sober.  

As for the gentleman in the Michelin 3 star restaurant arriving by helicopter, what was the cost? From his eyes, it looked like a life-long stress in a business or something. Maybe it wasn’t, maybe it was a few lucky breaks, or an inheritance, who knows? Whatever the cause, you could see he was able to release his stress or anxiety in the restaurant not being around people except his lady. For the bankers, they have to work all hours, in a cut-throat environment, all day to sustain their routine and lifestyle. For the martial arts students however, it is daily increments of effort, of discipline which remove them mentally from all the things of this world, teach them to respect and to be humble, and to be determined. It costs a fraction of the price of the things mentioned above in many respects. What purchasable things do you need to practise martial arts? For Bruce Lee, it was hardly anything. For Tony Jaa, it was hardly anything. The important things in life, which can make us happier in a deeper way centre around good values and principles, and good values and principles do not cost anything. They’re free. Simple-heartedness is a rare virtue in many places, but is most endearing. Warren Buffet is simple hearted, and I don’t think he’d trade that mindset for any amount of money; he doesn’t need to.

A balanced life is very important, and we should absolutely make sure we are doing what we and our families need, but also the education that it’s not the £200 stakes that take all our resources that make us rich, it is the small things, the little things, but infused with goodness, which make us truly rich in life.

Galadriel: Why the Halfling?

Gandalf: I do not know. Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love.

 

 

Simplicity

Keep It Simple, Stupid

Keep it Simple, Stupid. My A Level Computer Science teacher would say this repeatedly when we were learning how to write program code. Writing code in small chunks, writing up explanation of what the code did as each chunk was written, and ensuring that each independent component was functional before combining multiple functions was the bread and butter of this coding. From writing small routines, to a couple of connected ones, to more, which would interface to modules written by others, would lead to functionality we wouldn’t have imagined was possible on our own. But what happened when things went wrong? It was almost as though there was an exponential relationship between not ‘keeping it simple,’ and bug resolution time. You realize that not keeping it simple, really was stupid when you’re up all night trying to fix something that could have easily been avoided. The more senior people I meet, the more I hear things along the lines of “I’m a simple kinda guy.” They avoid getting too complicated in discussions, and usually try to follow logic in their thinking. Sometimes I feel that the more senior you look, the simpler the people’s mindsets need to be. Henry Ford was once taken to court for an issue with his company. The judges asked him about various aspects of his business. Each time they'd ask a question regarding a particular field, he would simply refer them to the head of that area. They asked him about their marketing, he would say, speak to my marketing director, etc. Henry Ford believed in not necessarily knowing everything himself, it is simply not possible. But he believed in being methodical, simple, and recruiting people he trusted. He was a simple kinda guy. What does simplicity mean in our corporate context? How do we be simple people?
 

100k…kilometers, not $’s

A senior Partner recently ran 100 kilometers in a challenge in Hong Kong. As you can imagine, he is extremely athletic, and regularly keeping fit. Another Partner did the Iron Man challenge in Australia, China and various other APAC locations, which is an extremely demanding task in terms of endurance and personal resilience he was explaining. We once went on a social outing with these Partners and others on a boat. There was something distinct about them that made them in a sense very simple. They were just peacefully watching the scenery, and just looking at them one perhaps wouldn’t associate their corporate lifestyle with them. They seemed to be aligned; their minds and bodies were harmoniously aligned. They had clarity of thought. They had confidence and they were comfortable being where they were; the outdoors was something they loved. There were also other senior people on the boat, who perhaps weren’t as much into fitness routines etc, and they looked like they were escaping. Their psychology seemed different. If we break it down, there are two lives we live; one at work, and one outside work. When we are overwhelmed in a variety of ways by work, naturally we want to escape. There is a phenomenon of ‘over-ordering’ food. I’ve often done this. You feel so hungry that you begin to order many things. Once about half way through, you begin to wonder whether you can complete it all. As you approach the three-quarter mark, you think you don’t want to have this again for a long time, and barely able to finish it. So when we don’t have enough of the outdoors, we are so hungry for it. When we get it, we are almost bewildered, we can’t get enough of it. And naturally, when it comes to returning to our work lives, we don’t want to return. If you a small does, then return to the work place, then take another small dose, and then return again, in good balance, there will not be this great degree of sentiment involved in returning back. Indeed, the mindset will become more balanced, unified, centered. These Partners whose minds and bodies are in tune, typically benefit from a greater degree of objectivity, unaffectedness from the turbulences of the work place and life, and are ultimately also less stressed individuals also.

Working to Live, or Living to Work?

The ancient Indian scriptures explain some very relevant topics in this regard. According to these scriptures, people have different natural, or inherent tendencies. Indeed tendencies can be changes, refined, or forsaken through lack of cultivation, but there is a natural sense of preference towards certain mindsets and activities that is inherent. This is also the driver of ‘personalities’ to a large extent. Certain people are outspoken, others quieter. Certain people prefer interacting with many others, some people prefer less. Certain people are very attached to ‘things’ and certain people are perhaps less so.  In a recent mixed martial arts documentary, one trainer was explaining that certain commercial fighters have a lot of luxuries now, and he mentioned, sometimes they do not feel like leaving these luxuries in order to get up to train very hard, who would want to do that? he asked. In the scriptures it explains how there was one class of people called the Ksatriyas, or the warrior class, who would be administrators and enforcers of law and order in the kingdom. It explains how such individuals would be under the guidance of the wise and knowledgeable people who did not have any vested interests, or involvement with politics. Under their guidance, the Ksatriyas would live a noble life enforcing order. In order to do this, the Kings and Ksatriyas had quite extensive facilities such as very vast ‘thinking chambers.’ They would be served with the finest foods, and have lavish facilities. We may be beginning to picture what this was like for such a Warrior. However, their mentality, was one centered around duty, and doing what was right. The facilities they had, were all their to facilitate them to feel satisfied, and to perform their duty; and wasn’t supposed to be for more than that. At the end of the Mahabharata, the ancient Indian epic, Vidura requests Dhristrastra to leave the Palace as his reign is finished and the heirs were ready. However he was reluctant to. He wanted to continue to use the facilities, even though they weren’t needed to serve him to do his duty. Today, the mentality is the other way around, people tend to do what they believe is their duty in working, so that they can enjoy lavish facilities. When one has a focus on working in order to enjoy, of course the mind will be filled with anxiety if this self-gain is not achieved. Physical exercise, the outdoors, such a regular routine involving these things, can help one remove themselves from a mentality of work for self-enjoyment, and instill a deeper sense of duty, discipline, and ultimately sacrifice for others. Once these mindsets kick in, our ‘awareness’ will increase of the dynamics at play all around us because we will become far-less subjected or victimized by these dynamics through this increased awareness of them. Many of the universal ingredients to success including confidence in doing the right thing, clarity of thought, and a positive outlook will then become possible for us.