The Adventure of Bonnie and Clyde

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle.
Albert Einstein

Economics has the model of the the perfectly rational and selfish individual. It actually has been a pretty good working assumption explaining what is going on in businesses, societies and politics. Yet many of us feel there must be more to life than that. You probably have already created your island of love, trust and cooperation, but you probably also can think of the areas in your life where you face a 'dog-eat-dog' environment. Try to extend this island of peace, trust and corporation in every area of your life. The Tao will show you the way, but remember to take small steps until you truly have the confidence that it can be done. Remember, it is you who has to throw a lot of psychological baggage over board and your daily interaction give the opportunity to do it.

We live in a multiple equilibrium world: believe that you can live in love and in peace wherever you go and you will experience it; believe you are operating in a dog-eat-dog world and you will always attract the shady characters who are happy to play with you. It is your choice, it is that simple. I want to illustrate the idea with the model that the economic community uses to illustrate selfish behavior, the Prisoner's Dilemma. Somehow, the story goes, we live in a world with lack of communication and in this world people will end up choosing non-cooperative behavior that in the end hurt everyone. 

Take the famous gangsters, Bonnie and Clyde, when they were caught early in their out-law career and the district attorney had little evidence to use against the two, so she tried the classic game-theoretic interrogation technique that she had learned at law school. Clyde was told that Bonnie was being interrogated by one of her colleagues. Both would be convicted for 5 years if they both confessed, but if Bonnie confessed while Clyde remained silent, she would go free, while he would be locked up for 10 years instead. She of course figured that given these circumstances they would both confess and would both lose out in the process, but to her surprise Clyde laughed in her face and said "This woman has taken a bullet to save me. Execute me on the spot, I will never betray my soul sister!"

You may say my example is childish and that trusting others has backfired for you personally in a professional setting. I think the cooperative solution is out there for you if you dare to pursue it. Just try it in small things and see what happens. What exactly do you have to lose? After all, has scheming really ever got you anywhere? You are not asked to sacrifice anything. Try and explore until you have found for yourself this niche of trust, corporation and love in whatever you do. At one of the retirement parties at our firm, one of my colleagues said, " I have been so productive here because I felt I never had to watch my back." If she could create this working environment in the competitive financial industry, why shouldn't you succeed wherever you are working right now?A little effort is probably required to find this niche, a few missteps will probably occur but believe me, the cooperative outcome is well worth the price.