Conversations in Management
If
you're looking for wisdom, Plato is a pretty good place
to start. Founder of the Athenian Academy in 385 BCE, he was the
dominant philosopher of his age. Today he continues to rank as
one of the most original and influential thinkers in the western
tradition. His discussion of permanence and change (best
described in the allegory of the cave) resonates as
powerfully today as it did 2,400 years ago. For all his
originality, however, when it comes to the subject of personal
contentment, Plato shared a durable and what's turned out
to be an enduring point of view. It seems that throughout
recorded history, clever people have been making much the same
observation. While hardly the foundation of their thinking, both
Socrates—Plato's teacher—and Aristotle—Plato's student—arrived
at the same conclusion. Two hundred years earlier, Aesop—of
fable writing fame—suggested the same bit of wisdom. A thousand
years earlier, King Akhenaton (King Tut's immediate predecessor)
had applied some royal brainpower to the conundrum and decided
that—you guessed it—contentment trumps envy every time.
The Romans picked up the idea after the Greeks with both
Lucretius and Horace similarly weighing in on the subject. As
centuries progressed other voices echoed the same theme. In the
17th century both Cervantes and Herrick thought the
idea noteworthy. It was a natural subject for Ben Franklin's 18th
century one-liners. In the 19th century the notorious
Countess of Blessington expressed the notion to her salon.
As the 20th century dawned, Kahlil Gibran thought the
idea worth mentioning and so it goes. The belief that
we'll be happiest when satisfied with what we have, has a long
and distinguished pedigree.
There is
of course some allure (at least for some of us) in the thought
of tolerating moderate unhappiness whilst enjoying phenomenal
wealth, but with 3400 years of wisdom to the contrary, it's
probably not worth indulging the fantasy. And, there's data to
support that choice. National surveys indicate that we're
generally an optimistic and happy people. According to a recent
Gallop Poll, 62% of our fellow citizens are highly satisfied
with life.
If we're
satisfied with life in general, it's at the granular
level that we often find ourselves in trouble. The harpies of
jealousy, envy and greed most often manifest
themselves in the small (albeit expensive) corners of our lives.
If you doubt it, take a quick trip to the electronics store.
Just where do average folks put a 65 inch plasma-screen TV? On
that subject, can your eye actually distinguish between a 60Hz
and a 120Hz HDTV? How about the difference between a 720p and a
1080i display? Name the product and you'll find a similar story.
We rush to buy digital cameras with enough megapixels to print
billboard-sized photos and spend hundreds on cell phones that do
everything but butter toast. There's no real satisfaction with
these acquisitions. The next best thing is always just
around the corner and we keep a sharp eye out for it—and for who
might have it. It is, after all, a bit galling when someone
similarly situated has something a little bit bigger, or
a little bit newer or a little bit better.
The
ancient wisdom is worth heeding. Happiness, satisfaction and
contentment are always preferable to scratching the insatiable
itch of desire. Yielding to desire simply means accumulating
more stuff that in time we won't remember owning. It
keeps us buying until our cars won't fit in the garage and we
end up feeding a $23 billion self storage industry. So stop
scratching. Consider indulging frugality and being wary
of extravagance. Each of us is wealthy in our own right.
It's time to enjoy it!
—Ebert
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