The truth is that we human beings require each time more that we already have. So, rich people complain that money has stolen their happy days and those who are not so financially fortunate say that only money could complete their life, that they would surely get everything else on their own if only they had the means to do that.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle.

It is not accurate to say money brings happiness, because it doesn’t. But at the same time one can not claim money has nothing to do with it. We are never really happy, maybe just for the brief moment when we reach our purposes or complete one of our dreams. But then, very soon after that, a new totally different problem or desire arises to take that happiness away. It’s human nature to be unsettled and uncertain and it is not a bad thing.

Whether we want to admit it or not, we all are happy at certain moments in life, but all we say is that we are never happy. There’s always something to inflict with our self-assurance or way of living that makes us nervous, sad or depressed.

And money is indeed one of those factors. Many people need it just to pay for food and shelter and they are happy if it’s enough to provide just that. But others, and I’m not talking here about rich people, they already have some living assurance and need more money for other desires or things they want to buy. And the list can go on and on as we climb social and financial levels one at a time. Everyone wants something, and once they have it it’s not enough or just too much and too stressful to deal with.

In fact, we should be happy just with what we have and stop thinking about money so much. Money is an important factor in achieving stability and eventually even happiness because we let it, we even push it up to that pedestal. Money does not equal happiness, it’s even worse than that: because money exists happiness is harder to reach.

But then again, if not for money, we’d come up with something else that we would let interfere with our life and cause us an infinite diversity of problems…It’s just human nature.

Tags: money

A great deal of energy is expended by many of the largest business corporations persuading us that they are truly committed to providing excellent customer service. If my experience is shared by other consumers looking for reasonable service from businesses, then these claims are hokum. I am writing this from an Australian perspective, so mentioning specific names is pointless, but I will give some examples of what I have experienced.

A large department store chain is struggling to keep pace with its main competitor. The retailing group owning the department store chain is considering selling off the business, since they cannot see the solution to the poor performance. I have shopped at this department store. One time, I found entering the store to be an eerie, almost surreal experience. There were no people. Eventually, a few staff members and customers ambled into view. I asked for directions to find a product, and was told ‘to the left’ with the wave of an arm, and no eye contact. A little later, I had to wait for the privilege of paying for the item. Staff morale was obviously at rock bottom, and it was no fun to shop there, so people did not bother. Any senior executive could surely have seen and sensed what I did. Too obvious, I guess.
The telephone company had a promotion which involved telemarketers calling and offering a deal that included a free cell phone. When I received the call, the telemarketer was based offshore, and had a heavy accent. To make matters worse, the telephone line was appallingly bad – I could barely hear what was being said. When I said I did not want a free cell phone the telemarketer demanded to know why not. I ended the call as politely as I could. For a telephone company to market its services over poor phone lines with a telemarketer who wants to argue with potential customers simply defies belief.

I was in one of our major banks, and overheard some conversation from the staff behind service desk. One of the staff, obviously experienced, was dealing with what appeared to be a young customer. She seemed flustered. When the ‘customer’ left, her colleague leaned over and said ‘that was a shopper’, to which she replied ‘I thought so’. The shopper was a phantom customer, used by the bank to check if the staff members followed the prescribed formula to deal with a customer. This branch of the bank dealt with customers who were both wealthy and of advanced age, some a little eccentric. To use the formulaic approach would risk driving them away.

We humans are a gregarious species. We enjoy communicating with our fellows - we need to be needed. We are hard wired to cooperate, so helping one another should come naturally. But no, decision makers, out of touch with day to day life, seem to come up with formulas to better what we do naturally. As I said at the start – hokum.

Tags: service