Most Powerful Bank

16th January 2008

" I start making deposits in your account - not cash deposits, you understand, but contacts. I introduce you to such and such a person, I arrange certain deals, as long as they are legal. You know that you owe me something, but I never ask you for anything.'

" And then one day..."

"Exactly. One day, I will ask you for a favour and you could of course, say "No", but you are conscious of being in my debt. You do what I ask, I continue to help you, and other people see that you are a decent, loyal sort of person and so they too make deposits in your account - always in the form of contacts, because this world is made up of contacts and nothing else. They too will one day ask you for a favour and you will respect and help the people who have helped you, and in time, you will have spread your net worldwide, you will know everyone you need to know and your influence keep on growing."

"I could refuse to do what you ask me to do"

"You could. The Favour bank is a risky investment, just like any other bank. You refuse to grant the favour I asked you, in the belief that I helped you because you deserved to be helped, because you are the best and everyone should automatically recognise your talent. Fine, I say thank you very much and ask someone else into whose account I have also made various deposits, but from then on, everyone knows, without me having to say a word, that you are not to be trusted.

" You will grow only half as much as you could have grown and certainly not as much as you would have liked to. At a certain point, your life will begin to decline, you got halfway, but not all the way, you are half-happy and half-sad, neither frustrated nor fulfilled. You are4 neither cold nor hot, you are lukewarm, and as an evangelist in some holy book says: " Lukewarm things are not pleasing to the palate."

extracts from the book The Zahir by Paulo Coelho