133. Laughing through clenched teeth

Dear Gerard,

A farmer had orchards full of apple trees. The neighbor said this was good and he was lucky to have such a means of production, but that he had put all his eggs in one basket. The farmer shrugged. The apples then got a fungal infection and the entire crop failed. The neighbor told the farmer ‘I warned you’ and the farmer shrugged. The next year the farmer tried potatoes. The neighbor said sarcastically ‘At least you will have plenty to eat’ and the farmer shrugged. The population then switched en masse to pasta and rice, and the farmer was left with his entire crop unsold.

The neighbor told the farmer ‘I work at the bank, and I’m here to tell you that you are not going to get more funding and I am going to confiscate your land and farm’.

The farmer shrugged and took his son off into the world. They slept under bridges and lived from pennies begged by the son, who had a broken leg. At night, when it was cold, the farmer took off his coat and put it higher over his shoulders.

I just read the biography of Elon Musk. He is the complete opposite of that farmer. From an early age he wanted to improve the world by making interplanetary travel possible, generating energy by solar power and creating electric cars for transportation. He is now in his forties and has three companies that make only these products and his financial wealth is estimated at ten billion dollars. He is extremely goal-driven and continues relentlessly until his work is done. He only shrugged when his first wife left him as he said that if she had been a worker, he would have already fired her a long time ago.

I think living with ‘Your Linda’, you’re likely to be happier than Elon Musk. But you won’t succeed in building a successful company unless you are lucky like the neighbor occasionally said to the farmer in your last column.

Sincerely,

Erik