Big Fish

Having recently taken on additional duties at work, there are some things I am learning in the context of those duties. Yesterday, I attended a meeting I had not attended before with mostly people who were new to my professional world. There was a standard go around the room and introduce yourself beginning. I almost had to laugh out loud because person after person said I'm mary or John Smith and I'm the Director of __________. Well, I thought surely I had unwittingly fallen into the company of more elites than I might ever care to know. And talk about a check on the old ego. I am the director of nothing. And most of these people appeared to be younger than I. How had all these people achieved such an exalted status? How many directors does this world require? How many directors can the US afford in the context of this economy? Ah, but wisdom would unravel the mystery. It is part of the American ideology. You see there are no Indians who do altruistic work to contribute to a greater good any more. All Americans who work want ot be chiefs. So, in order to get Americans to take responsibility in the work place, they must be given the title Director. A Director is a person who is given a responsibility to achieve something - except in the financial world, of course. Apprently, the biggest job in the financial world is to figure out how to accrue as much individual wealth as one can without running afoul of regulators. I suppose I should aspire to become Director of something before I retire. I have a while to work on it.