Yes, in this case, I am ALWAYS a liar.<\/strong> I can not say the opposite. But I also have my arguments, I think. If my plane flies on 07.50, I have to be at the airport at 06.50 at the latest, one hour before. If I say to the taxi driver this, he will arrive late to me (trying to get one more client meanwhile) and he will bring me to Eleftherios Venizelos airport (Athens\u2019s airport) at 07.00 \u2013 07.10, telling me that it is not a problem and that the people will understand. <\/strong>So, I always lie to them, presenting the hour as 30 minutes earlier than the real one. And guess what, they always bring me on time, never earlier\u2026 I entered in the half empty plane and went directly to my seat. I\u2026 locked myself and I looked around. Just some ladies behind me, reading a\u2026 serious magazine, full of information, \u201cStar\u201d. So, I was alone, me, myself and I.<\/strong> I was very tired but that moment I could not sleep. A discussion I had the previous day was still in my mind. We started talking for irrelevant things and soon our conversation reached the stories of some rich people. He was making fun of the situation in Romania, where the (presented as) rich ones appear every day in the media for 1.000.000 different reasons.<\/strong> I told him my strong belief that in this country (like in many others, Greece included) people misunderstand something: They have the impression that if someone has money, he is also intelligent and important. They close their eyes to the fact of HOW he created his fortune (or if he even worked at all for this) and they just stop in the figure of his bank account, or in the way of life he lives<\/strong> (and usually in Romania of 2008 people try to show off as much as possible, spending money like they feed the birds in the park, by throwing it right and left without thinking too much). The conversation went on and on. And I kept bringing each detail of it in my mind, as I was in the plane, flying now over the Northern part of my country. I am almost tired to discuss every day with my Romanian friends regarding the money of some persons, which do not impress me at all. I respect people for their mind and personality, regardless they have money or not. I can also respect them if they succeeded to create a fortune, by working hard, or by having a clever idea, or by developing some special skills. No one has my respect just because he sold a land with millions <\/strong>(that he never paid for it, it was just inherited to him), or because his father gave him money, or because he appears as a front man in\u00a0 a big company.<\/strong> I am more interested in discovering his way of thinking, his approach for life, his values and his strategy for the future. His small or big bank account is not connected to his potential as person and to my respect. PS. Good luck to Romania today, they play against France. All the best to Cristian Chivu and his teammates\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWhat is collected by the wind, it is spread by the devil\u2026\u201d Yes, in this case, I am ALWAYS a liar. I can not say the opposite. But I also have my arguments, I think. If my plane flies on 07.50, I have to be at the airport at 06.50 at the latest, one hour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[216,205,204],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI was thinking about this while I was uploading my luggage in the taxi. Saturday, 06.00, I was leaving to Bucharest, after a 17 hours working programme on Friday. (Lately I have found 2 excellent taxi drivers in Athens, if you need some serious reliable people for your trips there, don\u2019t hesitate to contact me and you will have their full data<\/strong>). The discussion on the way to the airport was the usual one:<\/strong> The super expensive gas, the fact that 95% of people in Athens has a very hard life nowadays, the latest crime with a famous actor involved and the stories for who killed him. Ah, and of course (as always), he tried to ask me if I have any (stupid) client, who would be interested in buying something ultra super expensive, but \u201cthe best location of the island\u201d.<\/strong> (He is a good man, I forgive him\u2026)
\nIn the airport the things were pretty normal.<\/strong> The usual (nowadays) majority of Romanian passengers (which keeps surprising me, when I remember that 3 years ago it was one Romanian passenger per 3 flights\u2026). Also a lovely old gentleman who was talking to me in a very \u201cheavy\u201d Romanian dialect. In the beginning I thought he really had a health problem, then I realized he just needed to talk to someone and I volunteered to be this someone, being able to hear so many important things (I guess) . Then a delay of several minutes because of the usual Romanian sexy dressed lady<\/strong> (with perfect make up at this hour, as if she woke up at 04.00 to prepare or simply she didn\u2019t sleep at all) who can\u2019t finish shopping on time and the typical late Greek who was not only asking for sorry, but he was even arrogant with the airport\u2019s people. <\/strong>Routine\u2026<\/p>\n
\nThe gentleman with who I met on Friday (one of my meetings) is one of the top Greek developers of high end properties<\/strong> (for the ones who don\u2019t know, let us call \u201chigh end\u201d properties the luxurious expensive homes). He is also active in London and\u2026 Venice (!), something that really impressed me. <\/strong>Without any vanity, he came to pick me up from my last meeting and drove me to his headquarters. If you would not pay attention to his face, you would say that he is an ordinary guy, dressed casually and driving a small car. But his eyes were the perfect description of what I call \u201cshinning from intelligence\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nSo, a name dropping game started, involving some of the most famous Greek rich people, starting with the previous century. The result is quite impressive: Almost ALL the children of the super rich people of the past have lost their money in just few decades. Mythical Greeks, with endless rivers of money and properties all over the world inherited to their children a wealth which was beyond the abilities of even counting it. The result? 90% of the new owners of this wealth managed to lose the money so fast, that it really shocks. The most characteristic example: The son of one of the richest Greek tycoons,<\/strong> the child that the Prime minister was almost begging it to ask its father to grand him an audience for 1 minute, who inherited more or less 3 billion dollars just 20 years ago, today he lives in an apartment of ground floor, in Switzerland, using the help of some friends of his father\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>
\nBehind me the ladies were discussing, using the word \u201cbogat\u201d many times. It was obvious they were talking for people who had money. We landed quite smoothly and very soon we were in the bus, heading to the terminal. Next to me two Greeks were discussing for something and I heard one of them saying loudly an old Greek expression:
\n\u201cWhat is collected by the wind, it is spread by devil\u201d.<\/strong> I remind these words to all my friends who are really fascinated by the money of some people (forgetting all the rest) and I am ready to bet on something: Take the list with the top 100 richest Romanians, as it is announced in the magazines. If after 10 years at least half of them will continue to have at least half of their announced money today, choose what you want me to lose.<\/strong> (But I forgot, usually in Romania the majority of the people lives only for NOW, not even tomorrow. 10 years is like 10 lives after\u2026)<\/p>\n