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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (45898)	4/13/2004 10:02:04 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50167

To trade your soul Life is a trading floor writ large. In some ways it pioneers cutting-edge finance, by exploiting the latest in the quantitative and technical field but it surprisingly reinforces some of those human qualities that have persevered from the earliest of millennia. For indeed the trading floor is but a small village of a few hundred people, who grow accustomed and acquainted with the foibles of their neighbour and through the grapevine make sure that the local gossip (or its equivalent) is circulated through the floor. The floor is the microcosm of the human family, with scant mention for race, religion or any of those divisive aspects of men which have been a cause for bloodshed in ages past. Moreover it is auspicious in being an archetype for a fully globalised world, where wealth creation and economic progress are the prime determinant for global policy rather than national intransigence and parochial pride. However conversely it could be an archaism because those within it are motivated by the very same survival impetus that spurred our itinerant ancestors to wander across steppe and grassy plain. It is the primary human urge and leads to the wide spectrum of emotion evidenced daily on the floor. Some respond to the survival complex with humor as their shield, others harden to a molten core and the balance weave their individual thread of self into a complex tapestry that lends itself to our corporate culture. For at the end of the day we of DrKW are but a small family, fated to spend twelve years of our lives side by side until senility and feebleness force us to reckon with the scythe of the grim reaper. The mobility of an individual in our industry may be high but the price for his ambition is the forfeiture of his soul. I don't mean it in the conventional sense of the term, rendered to a mere cliche by the brilliant movie "Wall Street", but rather implying that over time the contours and dimensions of a complex personality becomes drained and simplified to typify merely the survival function. Readers may be annoyed to read my continual references to the survival function since traders earning more than a hundred grand a year, maxing out to salaries of a cool mill or so, aren't merely "surviving". But then in our corporatist consumerist world the pursuit of luxury is merely a higher order form of survival. The need to have a Lexus or that pad south of the park (which makes the manner of living of bankers depressingly uniform) involves for them as much determination and drive as the starving waif who's nicking a loaf of bread. Most investment bankers scoff that they are only in the business to make money and then retire but that begs the question, that after dedicating the best years of one's life to refining one's skills in a specialised field in a particular industry how easy is it to abandon it and delve into a completely remote arena of human existence? It is as though the sacrifice of a decade as a corporate cog will enable these very bankers, with their hoard of cash, to rediscover and refine their humanity. It is survival of the fittest because to be pruned by the bank and with nowhere else to go you suddenly find the possibilites dry up, therefore if you are not at your best you run the risk of wasting your life. Time a concept unknown in the east and cherished in the west is considered a hurdle, a barrier to reaching the top of the chain and becoming the big swinging dick. Now it may seem that I've become cynical, despondent characteristics wholly dissimilar to my usually wholesome and passionate mannerism. Has the trading floor hardened me, or reinforced me? Naturally I prefer to think the latter in that it has made me more convinced of my ideals, of my beliefs and the surety of my argument (this is perhaps where the obstinate nineteen year old traits emerge). I think it is the joy of discovering aspects of myself, unknown previously, and the wisdom imbued in my logic that makes work a learning curve for myself. Yesterday was a carthasis for me since someone with whom I would banter (and a bet over the second India-Pak test match, which I'm guessing won't be settled) departed the firm for greener pastures. The policy of the floor is that a trader's resignation is effective immediately and so it was a hasty goodbye before his network over the past few months were abruptly cutoff. After relaying the news to my neighbour on the floor, it was greeted with no real surprised but merely an understanding that where the cash is one must followed with the exclamation that "we're only in the business for cash". Now remuneration is no doubt critical and directly proportional to the effort expended but to dedicate your entire career, a slice of your life for the pursuit of money alone demeans and devaues your intrinsic qualities as a human being. I love getting up in the morning to go to work (well actually since I'm nocturnal by nature five o'clock mornings are difficult for me but the point remains), to challenge myself intellectually, professionally and socially at work indeed creating a platform by which I may swiften the transition from boyish meandering to the responsibility embedded within manhood. The pursuit of money is also a reason, I find the pleasure enhanced when I spend with my own money, but perhaps the prosperity as brought on by enhanced wealth in the hearth and home has delegated that to a more confined role. Perhaps it is the workings of a Western mind, alien to my own reality, but I fail to see how the unabated accumulation of wealth can lead to happiness and the inner strength of an individual. Money is indeed the store for greater things but it is only a path through which one can work for inner excellence. To sacrifice one's mental abilities, constantly besieged by temporal decay, for aggrandisements that are of no independent value in themselves is counter-intuitive. One may enjoy driving a Lexus or living in South Kensington but to sublimate one's life to those goals alone equivocates one to a mere posession. For instance my trip to Switzerland, a comparative luxury, made me realise my love for skiing. It provided not only a natural relaxant, hurtling down the slopes at runaway speeds is a thrilling experience as my inner dharma calms to a stop, but also a vehicle through which to embellish my skills, mental and physical. A path to excellence and one that I enjoy means that I won't resist the temptation to book Corchevale for the following year. Skiing taught me the universal truth that the pursuit of excellence and happiness should be our guides throughout our lives otherwise we will have spurned our existence for the baser elements. A mere medium of exchange should not be elevated so as to be the focus of a life's efforts. Warren Buffest annually adds to his billions but it is borne out of a desire to do what he loves and perfect himself in it. Happiness is to be found here and now not so much an elusive elixir lying beyond the caches of the distant horizon. Hence I question the universal truth that prosperity alone lends itself to a happier society than poverty, indeed studies have shown that the relationship between prosperity and happiness is optimum at the cutoff point of the GDP per capita of 12grand. If I am endowed with a flat-screen television, garage full of the latest autos and a house with carefully manicured gardens at the expense of weakened family ties and a deep-seated inability to relate meaningfully other human beings then are my luxuries worth it? I guess that's the question that we sooner or later have to ask as the world progresses on to inexorable path of wealth generation and distribution. Zachary Latif 08:18