Challenging but achievable

Yesterday I read an interesting thing about "supply and demand". Back in 1990, an imaginative guy called Julius Lowenthal did a very interesting experiment that I am going to explain. By the way, according to wikipedia, Julius Lowenthal it is also te name of a company that manufactures high-end cigarette lighters and other luxury gift items....such as the Golden Gun that appears in the James Bond film "The man with a golden gun". Do not confuse with The man with the golden finger, or goldfinger, or with the man with the golden eye, or goldeneye) We will go back to james bond later, lets focus now.

Mr. Lowenthal wanted to explore the supply of "check cashing", so he sent checks of $1.11 to 58 of the wealthiest Americans, including entertainers, entrepreneurs, sports figures, writers, politicians...There are rich people in almost every profession you know. Of the 58, there were 26 who took the trouble to cash the check. These 26 were then sent checks for $0.64. Now only 13 cashed their checks. Each of these 13 was sent a final check for $0.13 and only two guys cashed that check. Their names are Donald Trump and Adnan Kashoggi.

My idea is that they sent some poor guy to the bank to cash it, but it is also true that those guys love every cent they can earn probably a bit more than what is normal (that is one reason they have become quite rich). I argued with my Grandmother not long time ago because she tried (and managed) to pick a 5 cents coin from the floor in the street during a painful couple of minutes, risking her back and having a bad afternoon without being able to stand up properly. I am sure Donald Trump would have helped her (and probably run away with the coin!). If you are thinking I am an asshole because I did not helped her, I was at some distance and when I realized (promise) I just had time to shout: please, die another day!

The other guy who increased his wealth by $0.13 was Adnan Kashoggi (and now we close the circle of connections), whose sister was the mother of Dodi Al-Fayed, Diana's...(I love wikipedia). Ok, it turn out that this man had a kind of crazy money-spending life, commemorated in Queen's album The Miracle, on which the second song is titled "Khashoggi's Ship", for his super yatch "Nabila". A very good place to enjoy or live the daylights. Just this small boat you can see below.

Do you know who bought the yatch at the end after it was bought and sold couple of times in a quasi-all debt operation and $0.13 of free cash?? Yes, you are right, it was Donald Trump!! The world is not enough....big.

The best is that the yatch appeared in a James Bond film (Never say never again). It is a shame that the film was not The man with a golden gun. That would have been really a signal to Mr. Julius Lowenthal, the inspirer of this post.

This short story tells us that when the reward for something is small, relatively few people take the effort of going for it.

Another input from class yesterday, related in some way with supply and demand, is that thanks to Salvatore, we could hear a couple of adjectives to decide how to set some objectives for yourself or for someone else. "as we used to say in my company", an objective has to be...Challenging but achievable.
I think this can be applied to almost everything we should go for, not only in the professional life, but also in our private life. In fact, that is what everybody likes, something that is too easy to get is not so attractive to our eyes. The best example is with (como no) men and women realtionships (Although I think it is more applicable to women). We may go for something challenging, but of course, if it is not achievable....well....there is a sentence that says that seduction starts with a "no" but I am not very sure about that. Depends which kind of no.

To finish the post I think it is fair to go back to James Bond (James Bond girls I mean). Good example of challenging but achievable? It is curious that since "Dr.No" they haven't been able to find such a good James Bond (Sean Connery), and such a good James Bond girl (Ms. Andress).

Readers, For your eyes only: