Crisis in Greece Shows Power of Self-Control
As I write this on Monday morning, the news headlines are filled with ominous messages about Greek debt and its impact on world financial markets. The Financial Times reported:
Greece has closed its banks and imposed capital controls to prevent financial chaos after the breakdown of bailout talks with its international creditors.
The New York Times warns Greece’s Debt Crisis Sends Stocks Falling Around Globe. The Washington Post explains What The Crisis In Greece Means For The U.S. And Global Economies.
TIME points out that the bailout was:
B adly conceived… focusing too much on the budget balance and not enough on fixing Greece’s uniquely dysfunctional state apparatus.
Whether you think this is a disaster for a.) Greece b.) The European Union or c.) The world economy, one thing is clear: we could have avoided this with a bit of self-control.
You can’t spend money you don’t have. You can’t do everything you ever wanted to do. That’s not how the world works. This is true for both individuals as well as countries.
Yes, you can get away with bad practices for a period of time. But eventually, they catch up with you. It has to be this way, or else everyone would engage in inappropriate behaviors.
Self-control is a valuable and precious ability.
Self-control is what allows you to be gracious and compassionate, even when you have the power to demand whatever you want.
Self-control is what keeps you working late into the night on a critically important project, even though your friends keep calling you to join them at a bar.
Self-control prolongs your ability to live life as you wish, because you are able to trade off a bit of the immediate gratification in return for long-term stability and success.
People who lack self-control often tend to blame their problems on others. “My boss has always favored Jimmy over me,” one professional might complain. “It’s unfair, because Jimmy gets all the big opportunities and I never get a chance to succeed.” But what the complainer doesn’t acknowledge is that he does sloppy work and tends to fold under pressure. When the going gets tough, instead of working longer and harder - like Jimmy does - he starts making excuses.
Let’s acknowledge reality: self-control is expensive. It requires sacrifice, effort and delayed gratification. It is not the easiest or most pleasant path to take. But it is the right path.
I understand the fear and anxiety that many feel today, and do not mean to minimize - or trivialize - the problems that lie ahead.
But when bad things happen in the world, it is up to each of us to at least learn from those events. In this case, the lesson is self-control.
Anurag Harsh [other articles] is a founding exec of Ziff Davis (NASDAQ: JCOM), the world's largest tech & gaming digital corp. He graduated (MBA/MS) from Wharton & MIT, has performed two sold out solo concerts at Carnegie Hall and co-authored the McGraw-Hill bestseller “M-Commerce Security”. Follow him on LinkedIn or Twitter @anuragharsh