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Fitness for Patience

2021, Corporate Investment Times

#CITEXPERTS - THE INSPIRATIONS CORPORATE INVESTMENT TIMES PROF. DR. MILAN KRAJNC Fitness for Patience On Friday morning an elderly gentleman called me into my office. Well, he looked older, although he was younger than me. He said he was too tired, he was always tired of everything - life, work, family, friends... “Everybody wants something from me! In the end, you will want money from me. “ I laughed at him and answered, that is the way the world of giving and taking works, and I poured water into him, put my own coffee in his hand and prepared another one for me. As we sat on the terrace and looked at the sea, he said: “I sit and look at the sea so little, although I have at least 5 more beautiful terraces than yours. CORPORATE INVESTMENT TIMES • SEPTEMBER 2021 “Well, you still have them there for free.” He laughed and looked at me. “I apologize for being a little sarcastic and negative, but it’s hard to get out of that vicious circle. I have spoiled everything too much at home, even at work, and in the end I am only worth as much as I give. I think about giving it all up and leaving. “ “You can easily do that, because as I understand it, you do not owe anything to anyone, even if you died, you’d all be without anything... Well, otherwise you’d share what is left behind, but the vast majority would be without anything. “ “You know, it’s not a bad idea, I’ll just do it.” “Wait! But take at least 10 days to let things go gradually, otherwise you will get another shock and you will not be able to fix anything. “ He turned to me and listened carefully. #PATIENC E 74 TH E G LO B A L CO MMU N I TY MAG AZINE “Let us go in order: Have you taken your property to safety?” “Sam. “Can you sell or close any legal entities? “I can. I need about a month. “ “Can you sell all your possessions and give them to your loved ones? INS PIRE GENERATIONS 2021 75 #CITEXPERTS - THE INSPIRATIONS CORPORATE INVESTMENT TIMES whenever the alarm rings, ask yourself who he is and how he feels without answering it. He should call again in 14 days. And really, two weeks later, he showed up at my door. He drank coffee from Petrol with him, even for me. Calm and sleepy, he said: “You know, I have already sold most of the companies and rewritten the real estate. I said nothing, just watched him. “You know, these exercises you gave me started to awaken something in me. “Yes, I need two weeks.” “Are you bound by anything else?” Yeah, you are right, I need to talk to my family. You know, I neglected many of them, I was very arrogant, because I thought money could buy everything. So they only expect money from me because I spoiled them or because I only knew how to give it to them... But I do not know if I’ll succeed myself, Sam, I’d ask you to talk to my wife and kids first, then I’ll answer. “ “No, just his wife and children.” “Do you intend to continue your relationship with them?” “So I suggest you talk to them all first. They were in my office in an hour. I told them the whole story and that the Lord would like to clarify things. This does not mean that I want to share the property, but that I want to talk to them, start and rebuild a relationship, not on a material basis of course. They all burst into tears and said they could hardly wait! “’Well, it will not be easy’, I said, ‘because he is so far away that he cannot find the way. “Not even close, because I have no nerves and I will not waste time!” I suggested that they all go on holiday - all to the same place and just meet there. “Okay, can we say that you are still trying, at this point, to replace all legal entities and real estate? In reality, they all went there and met after a week. “No. “Have you ever discussed it? “No, I have not. CORPORATE INVESTMENT TIMES • SEPTEMBER 2021 Immediately after his departure I called his family. They were very surprised, but immediately willing to cooperate. “That will be difficult!” “I suggest that we go over some exercises together, we call it fitness for patience.” He looked at me a bit strangely: “What do you mean? Are we going to the gym together? “ On Friday, exactly 14 days later, all four of them came into my office and just laughed... “Well, we sold all the property, and now we are going on a long trip together. Everything can be solved, we just have to want it and be patient. Well, patience needs to be practiced. “Not exactly, but we will talk a lot.” For the next 14 days, I assigned him two easy patience exercises: • Each morning he was to ask himself how he wanted to feel at the end of the day, and at the end of the day he was to compare the written feeling with the real one and write down the difference. • Set 5 alarms on your phone during the day, and 76 TH E G LO B A L CO MMU N I TY MAG AZINE INS PIRE GENERATIONS 2021 77