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Charles became obsessed with the problems of the world since very early in his life. It was in middle school when he began to ponder over them and from that moment on, he saw their solution as his responsibility. That is why he so enthusiastically took to the study of several academic disciplines.
During his post-high school years, he was under the belief that accumulating vast amounts of knowledge on matters of economics, sociology, and politics, was essential for tackling the problems of poverty and unemployment.
Poverty and unemployment are the fundamental problems of the world because when a population endures any of the two, people are put under a very heavy strain. For many individuals the stress is so insurmountable, that they end up rolling down the path of violence. Household abuse, crime, terrorism, and war are all directly or indirectly caused by these two.
Most countries of the globe suffer from both and even though developed nations only have to put up with the second, in the last decades they have also endured growing levels of underemployment. Good jobs have become every time harder to find.
Violence however is not the only by-product of a malfunctioning economy. Diseases are also their doing. Malady is responsible for the vast majority of deaths in the world and most of them are the result of poverty and unemployment because when people have low incomes, they can’t buy medical services.
For Charles thus, it was only a matter of eliminating those economic difficulties and the bulk of the problems of the planet would disappear. He thought that the main reason why those two cancers hadn’t been eradicated was because the amount of information of the scientific fields that dealt with them was too vast. As a result, a life-time was not enough to digest all the data and politicians were therefore unable to come out with the right mix of policies.
It was a naïve and idealistic vision of the world, but that candidness is what propelled him to put up with 100 hours of work per week. The fast tempo and the die-hard commitment allowed him to cut the time of his studies in half and to learn several languages. Nevertheless, by the time he finished his fifth university degree, he all of a sudden realized something. He had been wrong all along.
Yes, the pains of the world could be solved if poverty and unemployment got eliminated, but the thing was that nobody knew how to overcome those anomalies. Over the centuries numerous men of intellect such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, and John Keynes attempted to uncover the formula for the creation of wealth. They published countless articles, wrote voluminous books, and traveled the world expounding lengthily over their theories. Those men were without a doubt the most brilliant of their time and they largely outshined everybody else, but in spite of all that, they failed. At the moment of their deaths, they were as far from the truth as the ignorant construction worker who regularly berates incoherently about the ills of his country. None of those intellectuals was ever able to come up with the right formula and with concrete solutions. That is why to this day economics continues to be called the DISMAL SCIENCE.
The nations that managed to supersede poverty did not do it because they followed the advice of these men. It was a lucky confluence of events what got them there. It was all due to serendipity. Their relative success (for they continue to endure high levels of unemployment and underemployment) happened without any knowledge of how they got to the top. It is similar to the good fortune that some people have of being pretty, because beauty results from a fortuitous process that nobody controls.
By the time Charles finished his PhD, he was in possession of five university degrees, spoke fluently several languages, and had a long list of good connections that could open the doors to paradise. He was offered numerous good jobs as well as several promising business opportunities. There was also an abundance of delightful girls that wanted his company and countless people who wished my friendship. It was the moment to jump into the bandwagon of fun and joy. It was the moment to swim in the pond of honey and milk. The conditions were ripe to cash in on the arduous years of hard work.
However, it was precisely at that instance when he uncovered that the problems of the world could not be solved. It was not easy unearthing that information because it is the best kept secret of economists, but once he got hold of the truth, the consequences were devastating. His disillusionment was complete and his frustration encompassing. He fell into despair as the helplessness of the situation became evident. If poverty and unemployment could not be eradicated, his life no longer had any meaning. What was the point of living, if he could not help the billions of people on this planet? Could he go through life just slouching from one place to another in search of a good job, a pretty girl, and a thrill? Could he ramble through the Earth just trying to maximize his personal gain, his pleasure, and his bliss?
He meditated long over the matter and eventually came to a conclusion. He couldn’t remain passive. He couldn’t and he wouldn’t. He had to take action. If the formula for economic growth had not been discovered, then he would try to uncover it.
His chances were not good. They were pretty slim and actually infinitesimal. If the finest brains of the planet had not figured it out, he was surely not going to do it. It was an impossible task but if he had any chance of ever succeeding, there was a need to go all the way and advocate all of his energies into the matter. He had to risk it all because that was the only way he could justify his existence.
He thus dismissed all job offerings and lucrative ventures and began to do scientific research. He decided to focus on history and economics, and delved into hundreds of books that recounted the ups and downs of the countries of the world. He read and read, meticulously taking notes of everything that seemed important. He revised thousands of documents and assiduously studied the information. He compared the figures, analyzed the numbers, and pondered the events. He plunged passionately into the accounts of the past, hoping that they would provide a clue, a path, and a guide for a better future.
Some time later, a correlation was noticed and then a causality linkage was uncovered. The more he delved and pondered the matter, the more it became evident that he had discovered the formula of economic growth. With that formula, nations could rapidly solve their multiple problems.
He was thrilled and ecstatic with the discovery and rushed to inform the academic world. He was expecting a celebration from the part of his colleagues, but all he got was rejection. At that moment, he became aware of another bitter reality about life. People will always put their personal interests before the interests of society.
University professors are the most highly educated people in the world, but at the end they are just as humans as everybody else and their prime goal is to cash a salary in order to pay the rent and finance their social life. They might love science, but their priority is not the making of science. It is their financial security.
They thus vigorously resisted Charles’ discovery for it invalidated more than 80% of their beliefs. For them, to accept Charles’ discovery would have meant that they would have not been able to justify their salaries as professors or government advisors. Their articles and books would have become largely useless and their professional services would have followed the same path. They thus rejected Charles’ theory on a number of trivial arguments.
Charles thus started plotting a new plan of action to solve the world’s problems and concluded that he would try to make money. Money opens the doors to so many places and with it he could buy influence.
He therefore began to write a novel. Since he was a child and read adventuresome tales such as those from Jules Verne, Herman Melville, and John Tolkien, Charles always dreamed of letting his imagination run free on paper. He dreamed of creating fantastic worlds with bold heroes, glamorous heroines, and grand finales.
Nevertheless, such a task was not easy. Creating a best-selling novel is extremely difficult because the competition is ruthless. About 150,000 books are published every year and 94% don’t even get to sell 100 copies. However, the goal that was pursued was so important, that no rock had to be left unturned in the effort to achieve it. He thus quit his teaching job and went for it.
Something that gave him hopes of achieving that goal was the reaction of his friends when he showed them the manuscript. They asserted that the novel was as interesting and entertaining as THE DA VINCI CODE. Women even said it was much better and women buy 80% of the novels worldwide.
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