Save your money and enjoy the Mediterranean sun! If you want to live in your highest values, then you have to be open to listen.

In Romania, very little is called for financial and business consulting and in many cases proceeding exactly as in the story of the 3 envelopes. It is a story that seems somehow detached from the reality of today and that I will tell you the story below:

Against the background of some very difficult years and with results below the desired expectations, the shareholders of company X, decide to replace the Chairman of the Board of Directors who also held the position of CEO. So, here comes a new CEO who is handed the baton by the former CEO. The new successor asks the one who was about to leave if he can help him with some advice ?!

His predecessor told him:

-I won’t give you any advice, but as an aid, here are 3 envelopes. This is my gift of succession to you. At the end of each year when the company did not have the expected results, open an envelope, and see what advice I offered you.

After the first year, the results were not as expected by the shareholders, and the new CEO realizes the problem and is desperately looking for advice. He remembered the 3 envelopes left by his predecessor. He opens the first envelope, in which the former CEO wrote: “blame the previous CEO”. In the General Assembly, he said that he had received a bad inheritance and had to cover past losses. The shareholders accepted the explanation received.

After the second year, the expected result continued to be unsatisfactory, and the new CEO opens the second envelope desperately looking for another piece of advice. It said, “You have to reorganize.” At the General Meeting of Shareholders, he stated that a reorganization must be made if the situation is to be improved.

What a “surprise” after the third year the situation did not improve. The CEO is desperately looking for help and opens the 3rd envelope. There it was written: “Prepare 3 envelopes”.

Moral of story: Many secrets are hidden in the obvious, in our daily routine and in our emotions. The emotions and routine practiced daily, show their effects in the end. It disturbs your mind, distracts you, diminish your energy and vision.

So, a three-year magic cycle is coming to an end, and a new CEO could replace the CEO in the story, and the latter, if he didn’t change something, would have the same role as the previous ones: to write and teach. the three envelopes with the job relay.

Neither the first nor the second CEO was inferior in every way but an external consultant. An external consultant is a person with fresh thinking and new energy who can drip into a company’s vision.

Those within the organization have the impression that the consultant receives the improper fee because he receives all the information from the company, and sometimes comes up with a simple idea. The problem was that no one inside had thought about it until then.

PS: As Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”