OVERCOME ANHEDONIA
Gathering wealth in oil business, estimated in approximately $900 millions in 1913 ($189,6 billions in present-date rate). He retired when he was 58 and spent the remaining 40 years entertaining himself tastefully and skillfully. The legendary lazy-bones Henry Ford controlled his automobile empire lying on his famous office sofa and left it only for entertainments. At such moments he liked to say to his secretary in an instructive way: “Nothing, we are really interested in, is difficult for us!” The people, who knew Picasso closely, claimed: the artist would hardly have such a huge creative potential until the age of 91 without tobacco and… sex. SYNDROME OF SUDDEN WEALTH. Jerry Young, the creator of one of the most popular search engines "Yahoo!" assures that the acquiring of sudden wealth, which is estimated from $2 to 11 billions by experts, has not affected his habits and way of life. “I still do the dishes, take out the trash and walk my dog. I think these things help me to keep to my principles and have my friends’ respect.” Psychologists are sure: a newly-made multi-millionaire simply does not know what to do with his wealth and prefers to pretend he does not own it. Jerry Young is not alone. There is already a category of people who visit psychologists and undergo treatment from so called “syndrome of sudden wealth".
There are a lot of such people among computer geniuses from California’s Silicon valley: they own businesses with a yearly circulation of $200 billion, but they spend 10-14 hours a day in front of their monitors in the virtual world instead of enjoying themselves to the fullest. Is denying momentary joys of life worth waking up one day and realizing you are an anhedonist with billions of dollars in your account, your soul is empty and you are crushed by the stress? The contemporary disease quickly spreads in the Russian capital as well. The owners of elite restaurants have noticed it first: there are more and more customers who order vegetable salads with oil instead of specialty of the house, and prefer non-carbonated water over champagne. And the worst is still to come! In western countries that have faced voluntary rejection of the joys of life earlier than here, there are already customers who demand waiters to serve them the classical menu Pinocchio in the “Three gudgeons” tavern which includes a bucket of water and three crusts of bread. At the same time they leave big tips that exceed the cost of the dish many times. The ascetic invasion resulted in a protest march of British neo-hedonists who asserted the rights of every person to have a daily portion of pleasures. Pleasure hunters gave away wine, pastries and cigarettes to passers-by enjoying themselves from the heart. Why don’t you follow their example? After all the true meaning of human existence is an ability to enjoy every day of one’s life. And learning this ability is not an easy task at all. PLEASURE AT THE EXPENSE OF OTHERS. A year ago a German businessman spent $60k paying for the food and drinks of the visitors of one of the London pubs in Covent Garden. At first he paid for the order of the owner of the pub on the occasion of his birthday. Then he bought the birthday man 9 bottles of champagne $350 each and ordered drinks for everyone on $14k. To remove all doubts concerning his paying capacity, he drew out this sum from his credit card and asked the waiters to serve a bottle if someone ordered a glass of wine regardless of the price. He had already done it before in pubs of Paris, Madrid and other European cities relieving stress and experiencing immense pleasure from the joy around him.