MEHMET AKSEL
I tested positive for covid last Monday.
I actually had a test last Thursday in order to travel back from abroad, and was negative.
I returned on Saturday, and come Monday, I was positive.
I can safely say that mine was a very mild case.
I had a loss of appetite on the first Sunday, and on Thursday I had extreme fatigue and weakness.
Other than that I didn’t have any other symptoms; no pain, no fever, and no loss of taste or smell.
Now I’m fine.
Anyway, that’s my last two weeks.
My intention is not to wax poetic about my days, nor is it to slack off of writing for a week.
It couldn’t be.
After all, I have only been writing for a month, and that’s only once a week.
Writing is a tough gig.
Sometimes as I am working on my articles, I am reminded of a recurring conversation I have at MSA.
– So Mr. Aksel, I have opened this restaurant, but my goodness, what have I done, it is such hard work; it’s not what I had imagined at all…
– Man, are you crazy or what? This is a proper profession like being an architect or lawyer, what were you thinking diving headfirst?
– I’m a really good cook, and I got into this with my friends’ encouragement…
– My good friend, being a good cook is all but one of the requirements of managing or owning a restaurant, and more often than not, it might not even be an essential one. There is the decoration, the air conditioning, the service, the people management, the music, the lighting, the equipment, the cleaning and so on. Plus, you never really asked to get paid for the food you had been cooking until now; now watch and see how tricky things become.
Anyway, that’s that.
As I said earlier, writing is also a profession, and if I’m being honest, the only thing I wanted as someone whose prose is quite good, was to be able to bear my heart after 50+ odd years, and to write about the various things I’m interested in on a platform that I respect.
So far that’s exactly what I have been doing.
And I’m bubbling with excitement because I can get these off my chest.
I read a lot of opinion pieces. And occasionally I also check out the serious comments below. But sadly, I can’t do the same with my own column. Because on Diken, there isn’t a comments section.
This might be a good or a bad thing. I’m not sure. I write it as I see it.
I’m not a huge fan of forwarded videos but last week, a really good friend of mine sent me a short video… Warren Buffett is talking about ‘success’ from his point of view.
I can’t vouch for his honesty but his opinions pretty much overlap with my thoughts on the subject.
To summarize what Buffett says: In one way or another we’re all going to the same restaurants, visiting the same places, riding similar cars, watching the same games inside our homes, and perhaps we are paying different amounts to do these things but in the end, we are all doing very similar things, and that’s what any smart and able person would, within their own means, do anyway.
And, if the people that you want to have love you, actually do love you, then for Buffet, you are a success.
He is right.
Except one thing: for me being successful is meaningless in itself. Success is a relative concept. Successful according to whom, to what?
But if you say, being happy, I can describe that perfectly.
For me, being happy is an infinitely more important accomplishment than being successful.
– Am I healthy?
– Am I content with the person I see in the mirror in the morning?
– Do I have a job that I run to with joy in the morning and a home I run to with the same enthusiasm in the evening?
– Have I lived life to the fullest, am I living fully?
– Are my days fulfilling?
– Do I have interests other than my work and my family?
– During the day, am I doing things I love?
– Am I beat but also content at the end of the day?
– Do I have the luxury to avoid doing things that I don’t like or want to be doing?
– Have I been able to help people out during the day?
– Regardless of the frequency with which we see one another, do I feel like I have friends who would be by my side when I need help?
– Do I have the luxury to only accommodate people I love and want to see around myself?
– Am I at peace when I lay my head down at night?
– Do I have a gracious communication with my children?
– Am I with someone whom I truly love and someone who really loves me?
– Am I looking after myself well enough to maintain all of these?
And I repeat, I believe that being happy is an infinitely more important accomplishment than being successful.
Author’s note: Now that I am writing, I am even happier.