Q: We shall try our best, but these happen to be very bad days for the Brahmanas.
A: When did the bad days begin? You must bear that also in your mind. They began when the Brahmanas swerved from their achara and Dharma and entered the field of competition in the pursuit of worldly things. They forgot that they were most ungratefully misusing the heritage of ages. The others, who were left behind the Brahmanas in this race, first looked upon them with admiration and later on with envy and now with hatred. Let the Brahmanas withdraw from this race they will once again regain and command the respect which is their due. They commanded respect before, not because they were richer or stronger than others, but because of their contentment, which made them happier than the richest and because of their Dharma, which made them stronger than the strongest. The so-called bad days are therefore only of our own making. We can at any moment put an end to them, so far as every one of us is concerned, by reverting to the simple faith and the upright conduct, the religious fervour and the peaceful contentment of our fathers. I think that the bad days will turn out to be really useful and not after all bad, if they but make the Brahmanas realise the depth of their fall from their true ideal and induce them to make honest endeavour to recover it.
- Dialogues with the Guru
...the wonderful [Kurt Vonnegut] story that sets the theme for my remarks today:
True story, Word of Honor:
Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer
now dead,
and I were at a party given by a billionaire
on Shelter Island.
I said, "Joe, how does it make you feel
to know that our host only yesterday
may have made more money
than your novel 'Catch-22'
has earned in its entire history?"
And Joe said, "I've got something he can never have."
And I said, "What on earth could that be, Joe?"
And Joe said, "The knowledge that I've got enough."
Not bad! Rest in peace!
Enough. I was stunned by its simple eloquence, to say nothing of its relevance to some of the vital issues arising in American society today. Many of them revolve around money - yes, money - increasingly, in our "bottom line" society, the Great God of prestige, the Great Measure of the Man (and Woman). So this morning I have the temerity to ask you soon-to-be-minted MBA graduates, most of whom will enter the world of commerce, to consider with me the role of "enough" in business and entrepreneurship in our society, "enough" in the dominant role of the financial system in our economy, and "enough" in the values you will bring to the fields you choose for your careers.
Kurt Vonnegut loved to speak to college students. He believed, if I may paraphrase here, that "we should catch young people before they become CEOs, investment bankers, consultants, and money managers (and especially hedge fund managers), and do our best to poison their minds with humanity." And in my remarks this morning, I'll try to poison your minds with a little bit of that humanity.
...
Once a profession in which business was subservient, the field of money management and Wall Street has become a business in which the profession is subservient. Harvard Business School Professor Rakesh Khurana was right when he defined the conduct of a true professional with these words: "I will create value for society, rather than extract it."
...
Bright futures lie before you. There's the world's work to be done, and there are never enough citizens with determined hearts, courageous character, intelligent minds, and idealistic souls to do it. Yes, our world already has quite enough guns, political platitudes, arrogance, disingenuousness, self-interest, snobbishness, superficiality, war, and the certainty that God is on one side or the other. But it never has enough conscience, nor enough tolerance, idealism, justice, compassion, wisdom, humility, self-sacrifice for the greater good, integrity, courtesy, poetry, laughter, and generosity of substance and spirit. It is these elements that I urge you to carry into your careers, and remember that the great game of life is not about money; it is about doing your best to build the world anew.
- John Bogle, Enough
