The Art of Getting Rich

I have never had the chance to be rich. That is the one thing that I have always wanted and strived for. I looked through east and west every day, and I saw all those rich men and how their lives are as fascinating as one can get, I wished that I will be one of those people someday and get what I wanted in the motion of a finger. That style of living seemed comfortable and fashionable somehow, and I thought that’s all we are running for.

Though I haven’t got a chance to live life king size, I had a chance to meet one. I have been a journalist for the past five years. I have interviewed all kinds of people that we see every day from taxi drivers to successful engineers and have always dreamt about getting my final break, to interview a person whom the entire world admires.

That moment didn’t take too long to arrive, the news came to me when I went to my office usually one fine morning, Pete called me in his office and told me that I have to fill in for Paul for the next interview as he had other commitments, which I had no intention of knowing. Little did I know it was the chance to interview the former CEO of FutureTech Industries who took the company from a single room with five working computers to an organization that is among the top five IT industries worldwide today. He never seemed to appear in any of the media after he stepped down from being the CEO a decade ago. I got the papers and the schedule, what I then saw was the life changing moment everyone is waiting for. The very thought of myself sharing words with a world popular personality gave me the shivers.

Since the moment I heard the news, I started preparing myself mentally and physically on how to manage the tension and how to interview such a person casually. As an effect, I started studying how an influential and rich man’s everyday life would be and how it might feel like to fill their shoes for once and take on the world.

I started making my judgments on the people who were rich as I sat down with a glass of scotch in front of my mirror. If there was something that they can’t get in this world, that would be a boring day. They are flying with the wind every minute, time flies swiftly around them somehow even on a lazy winter Sunday morning. They are so wrapped up in work like buzzing bees, who never get a single jobless moment even to sit on their own thousand dollar chair.

It suddenly came to my mind that they were very similar to the angels of the gods at times, they could not be the mortal humans that we are. They could make the best out of their opportunities. They had what it takes to show their strength, their brains were nothing like ours, which were specially gifted for brilliant thinking. In fact, they were god’s favorite children.

These bizarre thoughts never stopped, it came to my mind that their pockets have to be so big as to fit the entire Eiffel tower in it, how else could they have the hold of such wealth? Their lockers had to be ten times the size of the banks that we go to. Their cheque books must have pages more than all of the Tolstoy works combined.

They must have a hundred sparkling teeth and three stomachs for swallowing all the delightful food they chew with them since dawn. And finally ask their servants to digest the food for them by the end of the day. How else could they spend all the money they possess?

Their hands must have been blessed with the power of multiplying at will. Each hand handling one job while the brain processes everything at once. How else could they concentrate on so many things that happen to them on a single day?

I started picturing myself as one of these people with golden watches and chains, wearing a velvet suit and a charming face capable of making even Mona Lisa fall in love. Maybe that was the whisky taking its toll on my brain, then I figured I needed to rest myself well before the big day.

As the sun rose the next day, I was well prepared on my questions and was thoroughly ready to get astonished by one of the most admirable people this world has seen. But what I saw was definitely not what I was expecting, all my imagination seemed very little when I saw that man, that old man.

I was bewildered to see him laid-back in his wooden rocking chair, smiling graciously in his old age, with his weakened jaw. Every strand of hair in his body was aged and white. He seemed entirely contradictory to what I had imagined. He looked as mortal as a mortal should, ate as a mortal does, as simple as a mortal is, he had only his silver watch and a gold chain on his body but nothing else. He was very welcoming, as he invited me in and wanted me and my crew to join him for a cup of coffee which tasted as a coffee did, which I thought would relax my nerves. He then asked us to carry on.

“Are you Mr. Roberts, former CEO of FutureTech Industries? Are you the billionaire?” Was all I could muster with the constant battle for words in my mind. Then it dawned upon me that I had prepared on how I must proceed but I chose to ignore it for some reason which I’m still not sure of.

“Yes I am.” said he, with a warm smile on his lips.

“How did you make all these money?” the lack of words still carried on as I started asking questions without even thinking.

“I earned these money, if that’s what you meant, I earned them by doing what I do the best.”, he replied again with a laugh.

“Then what do you do with all these money?” was my next dumb question.

“I earn more money,” was his next brilliant answer.

“And do what with it?” I interrogated.

“Are you a passionate journalist my boy? What is your aim in life?”, he posted me a question.

“Yes I am, sir. My aim was to interview a world famous person someday.”, I replied.

“In my time, I guess I am quite the person whom you might call world famous and as you can feel, you have interviewed me, now would you take it if you get the chance to interview the president or blow it?”, he asked me, trying to make a point.

“I certainly would take it, sir.” I replied trying to guess where he was going with that.

“That’s how the world revolves my boy. People never get satisfied.”, he concluded cleverly.

Somewhere in the process I lost myself, instead of thinking about questions that I had to ask this old man, I started asking the questions myself. How different were these people from us? They looked like us, they ate like us, they lived like us, but what made them special? What does the possession of money do to oneself to improve his life? How was that lifestyle better than us? I had many questions that popped in my mind, but one thing what I realized was to be rich is not possessing all the wealth in the world but to be rich is possessing all the happiness one can spread and get in this world and be content with it.

My quest of getting rich continued, but this time knowing the answers.