A Wealthy Corporate Executive On A Desert Island

by Jim
(Chicago, USA)

How to gain perspective when life overwhelms you:

Imagine a very wealthy corporate executive at the very top of his career. He is a graduate of the finest schools in the country and has known only success and privilege.

He is sitting at his desk in his corner office, arranging the finances of equally wealthy clients. His computer is filled with information as he picks up his cell phone with one hand and checks his IPOD with the other.

Now imagine you have the power to literally pick this financial lion up from his desk and transport him away to a desert island, fancy suit, necktie, mirror-shined shoes and all. He will put up quite a fight, but this is your imagination - and he has to go!

He is forced to leave behind his office with its thick carpets and mahogany desk and leather chair.

He is forced to leave behind all of his money and stocks and all the trappings of corporate success.

He is forced to leave behind his condo and his Porsche.

He is forced to leave behind his family and all the things he wanted to say.

He grabs his briefcase and his cell phone, but you take them away as you lift him out of his office window and fly through the sky until you see the tiny uninhabited island.

Our unfortunate executive finds himself in a new world. Before you leave him, you take away his wallet and his keys. You take the business school ring off his finger. Finally, you strip him of his thousand dollar handmade Italian wingtips and even take his expensive silk socks as well.

You leave him with these things: a bottle and a piece of paper and a pen to write a letter for anyone who might find it, and enough food and water to live for several weeks.

Our stunned former corporate financier is now left alone with his thoughts.

Everything is gone. His education and his background mean nothing. His wealth will not help him here.

His title means nothing. His white collar status and executive privilege have vanished.

He has a gold Rolex, but no need to tell the time and no meeting to attend.

He is wearing a $3,000 hand-tailored pinstriped Savile Row business suit, a starched white shirt and a carefully knotted $200 silk tie, but no place to wear them to and no job.

He is very well dressed from the ankles up, but he is barefoot and broke. The polished shoes that he is accustomed to wear are gone, but there is no where to walk to anyway.

He has no place to put his education and talent to use.

He has a top-of-the line Porsche in his office garage, but someone else will press the pedals, for he has neither keys nor a license.

Who is he?

All the outer symbols of power and success have disappeared.

He is thrown back on himself.

He has only a bottle and a message to write his most important thoughts. What does he want the world to know about him? What will he leave behind?

He struggles to write as he realizes he has lost everything that made up his life. His job and his money and his family are far away. His wallet no longer tells him his name. Even the shoes on his feet are no longer there. His dignity and his self-possession are shaken and breaking.

Only what is inside is left. What will he say?

What would I say if I were there?

What would you?