Trade :The Medium of Life

You stare at the menu at the coffee bar in the airport knowing that you only have three dollars in your pocket. The rest of your hard earned cash has been exhausted on goods residing in your suitcase and on that sneaky overweight fee you had to pay at departure. Blurry eyed and jetlagged you try make the decision between a latte that will give you some energy via a jolting caffeine boost and the tempting pastry that will stave off the hunger pains until the bland airline snack arrives in six hours’ time. You can only afford one, somewhere in the decision making process you have to make a trade off.

I was reminded this week of the concept of trade. Not as it just applies to the exchange of goods and services but as the medium through which we conduct our lives. So roll with me a little as we explore the idea. At a basic level of understanding trade is an exchange; we trade our time of money, our money for goods and services. You buy that cup of coffee at the airport and you have traded a steaming pot of java for a few dollars that represent value. But if you look deeper at the story you have also made a trade between the coffee and the croissant. You will have traded thirst for hunger. Our choices between items and activities are themselves often a trade.

Each of us starts the day with a finite amount of time. How you leverage that time to get things done determines what you trade your time for. You can spend overtime at work or you can spend time with your family. You are trading one for the other. The impact and value of that trade depends entirely on your circumstance and the possible outcome of your choices in the future. You can be a successful (on the surface anyway) businessman who misses their son’s rugby game and then wonders why he would rather spend time smoking with his mates that talking to his dad. Now there is a time and a season for everything and it takes a little discernment to work out what the best exchange of your time may be.

The way you trade your time reflects your inner values. The way you exchange your money (as for many of us money represents our time) will show where your ‘heart’ lies. Here is a great question to ask yourself; what would I exchange 24 hours of my life for? The reverse of the question is ‘How much of my life would I be willing to exchange for this item?’ For example would you be willing to swop a year of your life for perfect physical looks, to live one year shorter but be a demigod in the eyes of the opposite sex for what you have left? What about that car you want, or a million dollars, for dinner with Jennifer Aniston, for reconciliation with your daughter, for a happier work environment, for a better marriage. Chances are you are already living out the answer to the question.

Moral trade occurs when we exchange our integrity and our conscience. Every time you engage in a crooked deal or pay a bribe you are trading part of your soul for a quick fix. Sooner or later it will catch up with you; sure no one may see your inner loathing of yourself but give away enough of your conscience and you will be an empty shell of a man with a pile of regret. You get to choose the level you trade at.

Relationships are built and broken on trade; trade of words, of ideas, of memories shared, of time spend sowing into each other’s lives. The term ‘to exchange words’ is an apt term for an angry trade. Words once spoken are hard to trade back, erasing the memory of such a negative emotional transaction can take years of counsel and walking through healing.

My challenge to you this week is that for an entire week you ask yourself each time you are faced with a choice ‘What am I really trading?’ For every activity that you do ask ‘What am I exchanging this for...financially, morally, in terms of relationships, in terms of other areas I could be investing my time?’ And finally, ask ‘What may be the long term returns, positive or negative, on this trade?’ It is a sobering exercise, but a revealing one. Have fun with it.

 

Quo Vadis

I heard a story this week where a puppy was found in a rubbish bin. This was not some poor little stray that had fallen into the trash looking for food, this was a puppy whose owners had bundled it into a bag and dumped it alive into the bin so it would be taken away with the rest of their junk. Fortunately it was found before it succumbed to suffocation, starvation or any other of a myriad ways to die in a dustbin. How disgusting! Even if you cannot afford to have your dog put down properly by a vet I can think of a dozen better, more humane, ways to dispose of a puppy than by discarding in the refuse alive. That story should in some way resonate with abhorrence inside you, if not then perhaps you should check your conscience in the area of animal welfare.

We live in a nation that has become calloused in various areas of moral conduct. You just have to look at our driving to see that we no longer care about a legal framework of conduct on the roads. Given the chance most people will go through a red traffic light rather than wait for it to go green. It is a small slip compared to bigger crimes, but it says something about the way we are as humans, about the way we are carrying on as a nation.

Often we justify our actions by comparing them to the crimes of others. ‘The small slip’ mentality enables us mentally to shove off the concept that we have broken a law or code of conduct. Oscar Pistorius’ trial was popular; nearly everyone I know had an opinion on it or followed it to a degree. I would postulate that our infatuation with the trial was not because we cared about whether or not he was guilty but because watching it made us feel better about ourselves. We watched to reassure ourselves that our sick lives were not as bad as his, that our moral failings do not equate to taking a life, and that we are okay thank-you-very-much. We watch television shows like ‘Breaking Bad’ which show the degradation of the morals of the main character, Walter White, who starts making drugs to provide for his family when he is diagnosed with cancer. Part of us, deep inside, will feel better knowing that while we may skimp here and there on good behaviour we have not fallen as far from the light as Walter White. We numb ourselves to and justify behaviour and character flaws that morally fall on the side of evil.

Character will sustain you where talent may get you. It is one thing to have a revolutionary idea, or a skill that catapults you into success. It is quite another to have the character to stick it out in the long term. Flaws in your character will bring you down, open you to exploitation, and shorten a career that could bear much fruit.

You can try fake character. In the short term this can get you past the initial deal if you talk fast enough. Long term though it will crack you apart like an egg dropped on a concrete floor. The mess will be incredible and often irreparable. You cannot have one character in business and another at home or socially; that sort of acting is called hypocrisy.

Character is something that has to be worked on. Not just to improve on any flaws but to sustain the level we have attained. The human will is subject to entropy, just like anything else on the planet. It tends to degrade if no extra energy is expended to maintain the status quo. In the words of Albert Schweitzer some people “harm their souls... without being exposed to great temptations. They simply let their souls wither; not realising that thoughts which meant a great deal to them in their youth have turned into meaningless sounds."

Think of this situation, your beautiful daughter has a choice between two men. One of her suitors, Jake, has an impeccable character, he is polite, has your daughter’s best interests at heart, run’s his own business above board, makes enough to live comfortably,  but does not make quite as much money as the second choice Bill. Bill is loaded, he pays for everything, but you know that his business dealings are dodgy at best. He pays bribes to get contracts, and often boasts of getting one up on someone else in business. His life is littered with broken friendships that he has burnt through bad deals. Who would you rather your daughter marry?

Why all this talk about character today? Well, I believe that we stand at a crossroads as a people at this time. A pivotal moment where we can make a choice as individuals to choose a path that leads to either greater or less morality in our nation. Surrounded by elements of corruption, overpricing, shady business deals we have the choice to capitulate and make it a way of life or to stand up and refuse to simply ‘go with the flow’. It will take a hard look at our own lives and energy expended to fix it. It may take a standing up to those who would like to bring us down to their level, an effort to bring transparency to our business deals and way of life. There is a price to be paid to be a person of good character, in the long run, though, it will be worth it.