CHAPTER 8
Near the center of the town temporarily resided a man of ambition. This ambitious man dreamt of a future of financial renown. This man`s vision of a great man was an industrious go-getter. In his eyes, human beings fell into a hierarchy relating to their similarities to that elusive great man. The people who were most like his ideal man ranked higher in that hierarchy, people who are least alike were ranked lower. These low people, when they talked our man of ambition rarely listened. He would keep interrupting and talk over the person. They weren`t going to say anything important anyway he thought. But when a high tier person talked he would listen. Surely, the insight they offer was most profound.
This person's name was Otto Cusack.
People around Otto would strain themselves to get recognized by him. Because if he recognized you, that meant you were close to that ubermensch he envisioned. That was a great deterrent against the disgust towards yourself you feel when you get out of the bed in the morning. Whenever an ``I am worthless.`` , ``I am a waste of space`` or ``Why do I keep on living and wasting everyone`s goodwill`` kind of idea popped up by meeting Otto`s standards you were able to say to yourself: ``that`s all false and Mr.Cusacks faith and respect in me is the proof!``. With Otto`s stern judgment they were able to stave off the torment of self-disgust.
Otto was an owner of a traveling merchant caravan Which dabbled in fine wood, minerals, and other sturdy goods. He had a large warehouse in the capital.
When Stuart heard about Otto he decided to observe him for a while. Not to his surprise, Otto was a remarkable man. He was disciplined, Honest about his work. Stuart has seen himself in this man. Also with each passing day he observed him, it seemed like it was less and less likely for Otto to gain Ishtar`s good graces. It would break Stuart's heart to know when Otto dies he would go through that horrific torture which left him so humiliated.
If Stuart whispered something wildly non-sequitur to Otto`s ear Otto would think he was schizophrenic or worse, he might blow his cover. Rather than push Otto to be the opposite of what it is, Stuart decided to entice him to do nasty things that was more his forte.
For that reason, Stuart tried to remember shady business practices from the industrial era and onwards.
The wraith leaned into Otto`s ear and said :
«What if I kept median payment of my employees the same, pay less to those who got less stuff done, pay more to those who got more stuff done? Yes! It`s a great idea!
I`m brilliant!»
All pleased with himself, Otto made a declaration to his employees. The employees all cheered thinking they were the ones who were getting more money.
However, when this was implemented In the factories 1900`s It was a human resources disaster.
Several months have passed. The warehousing department was in a hurry. They had increased product traffic fifteen percent. They started dealing with things they never dealt with before. The trade portfolio was widening by a ten percent margin.
From the numbers standpoint, everything was going dandy. However, employees were not in the same opinion. In fear of getting their paycheck slashed, people were resorting to, amongst other things overworking and sabotage. The new policy has soured work relations quite a bit.
Janette has seen Clide peeing in a bottle instead of the toilet down the road. Instead of being disgusted like a normal person she found herself being jealous she didn't have such a convenient apparatus down there. Greed changes a woman.
Later that day they found one of the carriers collapsed from exhaustion.
Janette went to Otto to explain the situation. Otto understood.
Otto gathered his employees once more. He stood on top of the ladder and started addressing every employee.
«My dear friends!
An industrious man is a great man because he helps his fellow man earn a living too. People don`t earn money just to earn money. They earn money to feed their families and themselves. A policy of making money which is a detriment to health and family life is a failure. I hereby take back the implementation of the recent payment policy!.»
«LONG LIVE MR. CUSACK! LONG LIVE MR. CUSACK!» Employees erupted in a roar.
Stuart was busy with something else. He only slithered in at the end of the monologue. At that moment the lich understood that Otto was the kind of man who does good for responsibilities' sake.
However, Otto had rivals in this city. When he implemented the infamous payment policy, his rivals had to do the same so that they wouldn`t lose market share.
Otto`s company would get smaller and smaller compared to his competitors because he was hell-bent on not implementing this evil yet winning strategy.
Such was the nature of an evil that is infected a marketplace.
Otto now had a choice to make. Either re-instigate that dastardly policy or slowly go out of business. Or as an unlikely third choice, come up with something else to balance the disadvantages his firm is now facing.
He ended up implementing a lite version in which reduction and increase of the paycheck were not as severe.
On the other side of the city lived Sergei von Schlafferstein. This man loved money. Fat stacks of cash. Better yet, Sergei practiced the philosophy of willing things into reality. He sent the universe messages in the form of messages. Then he would pave the way for it to happen. Sergei was not by any means a poor person. He wasn`t super-rich either. He had been getting a lot of inspiration lately.
He targetted a certain neighborhood. This neighborhood was a fairly upper-middle class. He bought several houses in the poor district. Then he started giving free food to the poor in the upper-middle-class neighborhood.
The poor people then started loitering around nicely. Then came in the hookers. A certain skeleton had told them that they should target a richer clientele base. And these women rejoiced thinking they were brilliant for thinking this up.
Property value in the nice neighborhood was dropping steadily while prices from the poor neighborhood were increasing. A certain Von Schlafferstein had given generous donations to guards guild to police the poor neighborhood more.
The folk from the nice neighborhood flocked to the poor neighborhood, sharply increasing its property value. Meanwhile, all that housing they left behind their old neighborhood was flooding the market and thus reducing in value. Von Sclafferstein swooped in and bought a lot of houses dirt cheap.
When this prime grade asshole got rich, he wrote a book about how he asked the world what he wanted and how he got what he wanted eventually.
During a gathering he organized about inner workings of success he said these:
«Dear friends,
Ladies and gentlemen, all the people gathered around this stage. First, I would like to welcome all of you. You have all gathered to learn one thing and one thing only! How to be successful.
First of all, What do you call success? Does anybody among you know? Do you know what you are capable of? Do you waste your life accomplishing minor goals? Have you ever dreamt big?
We are people. We all fall to the lifes pits. Pits of lethargy, self-doubt, cynicism. I`m here to tell you about the seven ways you can climb out your pits and realize the gem within you: Your true potential.
This seven-step program emphasizes your focus, enhances your senses and evaporates that toxic cynicism we all carry on our shoulders.
First of all is meditation. I would like all of you to close your eyes now. Imagine what you want most out of this life. I vividly imagine it. Understand it. Every aspect of it. I want you to do this exercise for at least 15 minutes a day. Don`t skip out now ah hahaha.
Second is the goals. When you have your want established, you must establish your goals. You must CLEARLY state your goals to yourself several times a day. That you absolutely must do. You should NEVER ever give yourself an out while establishing your goals.
That is just an excuse and excuses slow you down.
Third comes the beginning. You must start working on your goals immediately. Without it, you become one of those old people who live in perpetual sadness and regret. They will die in it
Fourth is determination. Determination is an energized feeling you must obtain this feeling and hold onto it. It is your fuel and friend. Take good care of your friend.
The fifth is your sleep schedule. There are twenty-four hours a day! And you are wasting most of it by laying dormant! While your competitors are bettering themselves. Understand that this world waits for no one. Don`t be a sucker. You can make do with four hours of sleep.
Sixth and the most important one. You must make your goals known to the world. Materialize what you want into existence with your energy, your spirit! We all got this connection to the higher plane of existence. USE IT!
Seventh is the completion. You must see it through without a single complaint. Use your goal meditations to push yourselves.
And don`t forget,
You are capable of much much more!»
Our lich was watching this entire speech in disgust.
The man who made this speech made his wealth by swindling hard-working people out of their hard-earned savings using underhanded methods.
In the future, the successes of the Sclafferstein family included securing exclusive opium trade rights to a country called saniao pianpian. The people of that country got addicted to opioids quickly. Such trade brought about tremendous suffering but it was not that important. What`s important was the tremendous amount of wealth produced by participating in this endeavor. The opportunity, The path to success was there and members of this family took it.
Later there was a war between the kingdom and sanio pianpian which the country that was going through withdrawal symptoms lost.
An another Schlafferstein got information about who won a war down south early by employing a certain number of lanternmen. When one side won the signaling was different than when the other side won. As soon as this Schlafferstein lady got the news she spread false information about who won the war by discreet means. Everyone sold and bought their shares trusting the info going around. She was able to buy up shares from companies related to winner side dirt cheap. All of a sudden she was one of the richest people in her country.
They had quite the remarkable legacy of assholery. They were truly the Ishtar`s beloved.
The lich, after he heard the speech, made his way to the governor's office. He learned from trying to corrupt business moguls that if you corrupt powerful positions you can sow the seeds of corruption more efficiently.
The country was a monarchy but local governments were a democracy. They were elected in five years intervals.
An election was coming up. Stuart whispered to the governor's ear:
«I can divide the borders of the neighborhoods in such a way that the districts who vote for me would be more numerous.»
The skeleton switched to the other ear.
«What matters not who is right, what matters is who is loud. Help the local rich, in turn, they will help you to be loud when the time comes.»
Wraith hugged this man from the back, brought his mouth to his ear.
«I should steal votes if and when I can, it's my competitor's fault for not paying attention.»
The undead placed his hands on the governor's shoulders.
«I shouldn`t be so eager to solve problems. Every unsolved problem is something to promise in the next election.»
The governor got up, fixed his tie, and «Hmm, it's always good to go over basics when one is doing his job.» he proclaimed. Then he reached to his pockets and picked up his tweezers. He then started to pull out his nose hairs.
Stuart quickly escaped the mirror's visual angle. the undead lich from another dimension was a bit terrified about what a god damn savage this governor was. He has never seen anything like it.
``I guess my job here is done`` the lich taught.
``I should visit the palace instead``
There lies the bigger fish.
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