Life Sentence

We had lunch appointment the other day, with a friend of a friend. And because the restaurant was at his building, we dropped by at his office.
He gave us a little tour around the office and gave us a brief story of the company he owns. A medium sized business, quite successful. It does not make him a billionaire, but he certainly is comfortable. And very proud.

At one point, one man popped by and told us that he couldn't join the lunch. Something came up, he said. Apologized and left.
"My finance director," said our businessman friend. " A good man. A good friend too"
As the finance director left, he added:
"We used to compete, him and me. A tough one too."

"What? your finance director used to be your competitor?"

"Yes. A long time ago. We came from the same town, you see. Same high school. Both had no money to go to college, so we both started our own business. Obviously with so much similar background, we started a similar business. So we compete. Fiercely too, at times. Don't get me wrong. He's one of my best friend in high school. But when it comes to business, we compete each other like hell."

"And now he works for you? How did that happen?"

"I don't know really. He's always been very careful. Very prudent. I always thought he's better than me. You know, with him everything is so organized. Well-planned. Calculated. Compared to him I was such a mess. But somehow his business was not doing so well. In the end he got tired of it and offered me to buy it from him. So I did, and I asked him to join me in my company. Help me out with the finance side. He's good at that."

He continued:
"This is business, you see, and in business you can't plan everything. For me, as long as the plan meets my basic calculation, I would just go for it. He on the other hand, would wait until he can know more.
He's motto was always 'good things happen to those who wait'...

"Do you think that's a bad motto?"

"No, I don't. It's a good motto. I just don't think the sentence should stop there. I think the complete sentence should be:
good things happen to those wait, and better things happen to those who act. "

Apparently, one additional sentence can really set your life apart from being an employee or an owner of a company.

The Mustache

Watching the situation in Zimbabwe we couldn't help wondering about Robert Mugabe's mustache. Look at the picture below [1] if you are not familiar with Mr. Mugabe's face.

Mr. Robert Mugabe

Why the mustache?

Seriously: It is election time in Zimbabwe, where he must campaign for the Presidential election run-off (at least that is the latest we read when we wrote this piece).
And things are not looking so great for Mr Mugabe. How do you appeal to your people when you have brought the country down to its knees with hyperinflation of 1700 percent, 80% unemployment rate and life expectancy of the lowest in the whole world? [2]
At least you would try to appear likable, wouldn't you?

So why the mustache?

Such iconic mustache reminds us of two people in history: One is of course Adolf Hitler. And although Mr Mugabe has been labeled a dictator by many, we can't be sure if he thinks of 'Mein Kampf' when he shaves in the morning, carefully trimming the edges.
But then again, there is no way Mr. Mugabe was not aware that such style would resemble the little man.

Unless of course he is thinking of the second person in history who had such style: That person would be Charlie Chaplin [3]. The comedy king of the silent movie era.
But we don't think Mr. Mugabe is trying to be funny.

Sir Charlie Chaplin

Source:

[1] economist.com
[2] IHT.com
[3] jbench68.com