The Eloquence of Effort: Beware the Path of Least Resistance

By Indar Maharaj

The Eloquence of Effort echoes the merits of conscientious toil.  It provides an insightful look into the benefits of sustained socio-economic effort. To convincingly argue that dreams are only achievable through mind-numbing toil, the writer draws heavily from biographical, philosophical, economic, religious, historical and scientific data.

Work is the mission; the multiple rewards are the byproducts, he argues. More importantly, the pleasure resides in the effort, not the results.  Against the dark backdrop of malignancies inflicted on society by unrepentant leeches, the benefits of worker integrity are sharply focused. The reader is imperceptibly nudged into a higher plane of reality: namely, purposeful effort, regardless of its nature, is supremely rewarding.  The writer forces the realization that regardless of the immediate outcome, effort is never wasted.  Conversely, indolence is the bane of progress and the root cause of economic crimes. Indeed, corruption in all its diabolical forms is nothing but laziness masquerading as diligence and embraced by those wanting the most for the least.

  

Analysis of biographical data sustains the thesis that industry prolongs life; indolence truncates it – a finding supported by the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

The persuasiveness of the arguments is supported by a wealth of references.  Together they form the final authority; they have given resonance to the arguments contained herein.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Indar Maharaj
• Release date: Nov 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9780995344013

Indar Maharaj

The writer is a Canadian national currently residing in Toronto, Canada.    An alumnus of the University of Toronto, he graduated with a PhD in Microbiology before joining private industry as a research scientist. In addition to experimental work, he has lectured extensively on Microbiology, Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences in Toronto.  To broaden his horizons, he has spent over three years in China. Among some of his activities were lecturing on Critical Thinking and Human Physiology at Minjiang University, Fuzhou. He lives by his creed: meaningful effort is never wasted.  In this regard, he has delivered presentations on Entropy and The Eloquence of Effort to several interested groups.  Currently, he is on the Science Advisory Panel of the Green Think Tank, an organization dedicated to environmental issues. In addition to authoring several scholarly papers, he has been the recipient of several prestigious scholarships during his tenure as a graduate student. For more information you may contact him at: [e-mail]

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DEDICATION

To Navin Beharry, Chandra Abrahim and Indra Mahharaj who offered me shelter during my period of homelessness

The ELOQUENCE of EFFORT: BEWARE the PATH of LEAST RESISTANCE

By

INDAR MAHARAJ (PhD)

Toronto, Ontario

Email: [e-mail]

(ISBN) 978-0-9953440-2-0

August 2017

Dedication

To Navin Beharry, Chandra Abrahim and Indra Maharaj who offered me shelter during my period of homelessness

Acknowledgements

My sincerest thanks to C.Y. Lo (PhD) and Michael Liscombe (MSc) for their insightful thoughts along the way

Contents

PROLOGUE

PART 1: THE HEIGHTS by GREAT MEN REACHED and KEPT..

Chapter 1

BILL GATES: A Businessman and a Philanthropist

Introduction

A Boy’s Life

High School Life

University Life

Running Microsoft: The Early Days

Time Usage

Expectation from Employees

Currently

Chapter 2

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON: A Gifted Politician

A Workaholic

Accomplishments

Clinton’s Nocturnal Physiology

Work Ethic

Post-Presidential Activities

Chapter 3

SUNIL KUMAR: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Boy

Early Life and Education

The Ground Flight

A Study in Resilience

The Rewards of Toil

Modest Achievements

Sitting on a Hill

PART 2: AGAINST EFFORT ARMIES ARE POWERLESS

Chapter 4

GANDHI: A Saintly Politician

Overview

The Aspirations of a Karma Yogi

Work Ethic

Asceticism and Stoicism

Wows of Brahmacharya

Political-Social Activism in India

Conduct of the Wise According to the Gita

The Significance of Salt March

The Salt March and the Boston Tea Party

The Rowlatt Acts and the Amritsar Massacre

His Legacy

Chapter 5

MOTHER TERESA: A Saintly Nun

Her Legacy

The Beginning

Founding of Kalighat Hospice

An Austere Life

Work Ethic

Mother Teresa and Gandhi: Their Similarities and Differences

Chapter 6

ALBERT SCHWEITZER: A Saintly Doctor

Introduction

Personal Sacrifices

Schweitzer’s Work Ethic

Shaping of a Philosophy

Reverence for Life

The Fruits of Sustained Effort

A Comparative Glance

Lessons from the Crypts

PART 3: BEWARE the PATH of LEAST RESISTANCE

Chapter 7

OF PIMPS AND PROSTITUTES

A Pimp’s Life

Robert Beck

Moment of Epiphany

Recovery and Collapse

Prostitution: the Grim Reality

A Life of Involuntary Servitude

Prostitution According to a Madam

Polly’s Business Model

The Descent of a Madam

Polly Discovers Truth

Natalia McLennan and Jason Itzler

Facile Wealth is Fleeting

The Crash

Jason Itzler

Chapter 8

BRUCE REYNOLDS: A Common Thief

The Great Train Robbery

Crimes Cars and Crumpets

A Fugitive’s Life

The Pitiful End

Chapter 9

BERNARD MADOFF: A White Collar Criminal

The Life and Times of Bernard Madoff

Bernie’s Mansions

Monogrammed Underwear

Ruth Madoff’s Excesses

Amusement: A Fancy Excuse For Doing Nothing

Vacation were the Vocation

Fine Dining

Unprecedented Extravagance

Incarceration

Ostracism

The Family

He Broke the Record and Himself

No Evidence of Effort

Chapter 10

PABLO ESCOBAR: An International Drug Trafficker

Introduction to the Criminal Sewer

The Colombian Drug Trade

A $63-Million Sweet-Home

Overindulgence

The Slaughter of the Innocents

Pablo’s Demise

Chapter 11

JOHN GOTTI: A Career Criminal

Indolence: The Precursor to a Criminal Life

Misplaced Role Model

Mob Activity

Unearned Wealth

He Had It All

He Lost it All

PART 4: MAKING MONEY NEVER EARNING IT

Chapter 12

ENRON: A Corrupt Multinational

Introduction

Enron Business Model

Causes of Enron’s Downfall

Engineering California Energy Crisis

Enron and Andersen

Abuse of SPEs

Corruption Breeds Corruption

Nepotism

Spending Spree

Who Was Minding the Store?

The Consequences of Greed

In the Throes of Death

Chapter 13

THE BRITISH EAST INDIA COMPANY: An Autocratic Head of State

Overview

The Origin

Robert Clive

Runaway Greed

Warren Hastings

The Exploits of Pigot and Rumbold

Paul Benfield: the dean of usury

Machinations of the BEIC Officials and Attendant Consequences

The Final Subjugation of India

Indian Rebellion

The BEIC and Enron

PART 5: NO SWEAT: NO EMPIRE

Chapter 14

RAPING the RAJ

Famines

Causes of food shortage

The British-Indian Army

Discrimination in the Indian Civil Service

The Railways and Irrigation

Grain, Goods and Garments

Trade

Agriculture

Engineering the Coconut

The Judiciary

Denial of Press Freedom

The Drain and Debt

Chapter 15

RAPE of CHINA: The Bloodletting Continues

Overview

Opium Trade

First Opium War (1839-1842)

Second Opium War

Boxers’ Rebellion

Adverse Effects of Cheap Cotton

Monetary Hemorrhage

Chapter 16

SLAVE LABOR in AMERICA and the WEST INDIES

The Slave Trade and Middle Passage

Denying the Slave his Dignity

Dehumanizing the Slave

Working and Living Conditions

Economic Gains

Slave Labor in the West Indies

Chapter 17

THE COOLIE TRADE: Non-white Lives Did Not Matter

Chinese Coolie Trade

Indian Coolies in the British West Indies

Instruments of Repression

Production under Oppression

Chapter 18

DEATH of the BRITISH EMPIRE: Karmic Justice

Overview

Mercantilism: A Wealth Synthesizing Lab

The Evolving Contours of British Might

Karmic Justice: The Collapse of the British Might

And the Decay Never Stopped

PART 6: WHERE SWEAT DRAINS SUCCESS REIGNS

Chapter 19

JAPAN: The Eloquence of Effort Personified

Philosophical Religious and Social Influences

The Culture of Team Work

Company-Employee Relationship

Long Term Planning

Kaizen: A System of Continuous Improvement

Family Life

Social Upheaval in Postwar Japan

The Indiscriminate Destruction

Food and Housing Shortages

Disease Despair and Death

Rampant Prostitution

Corruption and Petty Theft

Economic Chaos

Contemporary Japan

Scientific Research

The Auto Industry

Renewable Energy

Advanced Technologies

Ship-building

Pharmaceuticals

Robot Technology

The Success Continues

PART 7: SWEAT: The ELIXIR of LIFE

Chapter 20

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY: A Promise of Wellbeing

Physical Effort

Cardiovascular Benefits

Immune System

Cortisol Effects

The Curse of Indolence

Chapter 21

ACTION: The Secret to Neural Rejuvenation

Evolution of a Complex Nervous System

Body-Mind Connection

Neuroplasticity: Remodeling of Brain Tissue

Therapeutic Value of Physical Challenges

Mental Exercises

Chapter 22

EMPLOYMENT: A Purpose to Live

Socio-economic factors

Effects on Mental Health

Unemployment and Mental Wellbeing

Therapeutic Effects of Creative Work

Health Benefits of Volunteering

Chapter 23

EARLY RETIREMENT DEATH: When Living has no Meaning

Retirement: a life-altering event

Mental Health Risks

Risks of Post-retirement Diseases

Mortality Risks

Chapter 24

WORK: The Fountain of Youth

The Fountain of Youth

A Felon’s Life

PART 8: GOD’S WORK

Chapter 25

KARMA YOGA: The Good for Nothing Religion

Overview

The Bhagavad Gita: a Synopsis

Sacrifices has its Rewards

Sharing and Cooperation

Leadership

God Does the Work: We Are the Instruments

Attachment to Desires

Divided Emotions

Sensory Pleasures

Chapter 26

METAPHYSICS of HUMAN EFFORT

Newton’s Third Law of Motion

Cause and Effect

The Law of Karma: Spiritual Law of Cause and Effect

Chapter 27

ENTROPY: Why the Effort Guarantees the Result

Entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Low-entropy Living and the Environment

Cancer Villages

The Medical Profession

Neutralizing Entropic Forces

About the Author

End Notes

PROLOGUE

To work is to live: for without work there can be no life and without life there can be no work. Just as work demands effort, effort demands work. Thus, both effort and work are used interchangeably except to acknowledge that in the science of Physics work is defined as a function of effort over distance traveled.

In their book The Fourth Frontier, Graves and Addington observed that an individual spends about 100,000 hours at work - an average of 50% of waking time.{1} Considering the time factor alone one’s working life is as significant as one’s personal life. In the view of Professor Kim Burton: Work defines us. It gives people structure to their lives. Take that away and people lose their interaction with friends and colleagues, the mental stimulus, the daily activity. Worklessness is both a mental and physical decommissioning.{2} Or, as Jeremy Rifkin has pithily expressed: Without work, man is incomplete.{3}

Despite its mythic significance precious few books, journals, sermons, lectures are dedicated to the institution of work. Mysteriously, an inscrutable shroud of silence encompasses the very notion of work. Innumerable gods and goddesses extol the power and splendor of love. Timeless monuments erected in its honor. Music, poetry and art all eulogize its timeless grandeur. But of work, the artist, the poets, the writers and the crooners have fallen oddly silent. Yet love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness, says Sigmund Freud.{4} Together, they conspire to shape our collective destinies. Despite its significance, few pay respectful attention to their work. For most, it is but a necessary evil motivated by compensation.

Contsistent with some religious doctrines, the primary mission of the individual is to make this place a better one: an undertaking that can only be accomplished through one’s blood, sweat and tears, as banal as it may sound. Consequently, agonizingly unstinting effort is the mission. The rewards are priceless, as you would see.

The imaginative polymath Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest scientific minds of his day. His research into diverse fields of architecture, mathematics, civil engineering, astronomy, anatomy, zoology, geography, and paleontology earned him a place in the annals of history. On the subject of work, he remarked: God sells us all things at the price of labor. And labor we must. There is no other way. I dare say that corruption is laziness masquerading as diligence and practiced by those craving the most for the least.

It is therefore not surprising that the institution of work is so well enshrined in the religious literature of the world. 

Whatever you do ….. do it as an offering unto me….. Your right is to work only… let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be inaction.{5}

Any Torah which is not combined with work will vanish and in the end causes sin.{6}

Your work is to discover work, and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.{7}

He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.{8}

Man who stand on hill with mouth open will wait long time for roast duck to drop in.{9}

Some religious sects have separated work into religious and secular entities as if the latter were lower caste. Yet, secular work is as sacred as religious work and the chasm is but a specious one. The Benedictines have doggedly embraced and made physical work an integral facet of their creed. To this end, Saint Benedict formulated a set of rules by which monks of his monastery were enjoined to live by. Chapter 48 of the Holy Rules of St. Benedict emphasized the merits of manual labor and demanded that specific times of the day be allocated to physical work thereby laying the unshakeable foundations for self-sufficiency.{10} Seminal to the rules is the decree laborare est orare: work is worship.

The Benedictines have willingly accepted this doctrine and came to appreciate the value of an honest day’s toil. They made no distinction between religious and worldly toil. To them, both are of equal value; the dichotomy is misleading. Because St. Benedict wanted his monks to engage in physical toil, the Benedictines became skilled craftsmen who worked in metal, wood and stone. Extending beyond the normal call of duty, they constructed roads, wove cloth, grew crops and planted gardens to ensure the land was productive. Undertaken solely for the benefit of the community, they performed selflessly. By tenaciously adhering to the dogma – work is worship - the Benedictines became self-reliant and flourished as a community.{11} Their communal successes stridently attested the benefits of their toil and vindicated their blind adherence to the merits of this philosophy. As the work-is-prayer ethic diffused across continental Europe the Benedictine community prospered in the face the barbarian invasion.{12} The Rosicrucians{13} have adopted a similar doctrine as well. They too are pledged to hard work: Let us not, with folded arms, float with the tide of indolence, but ever strive after increase of that true knowledge which is wisdom and remember that "to labour is to pray.{14} This reverence-for-work philosophy, as exemplified by the wise precept laborare est orare, was also borrowed by the Freemasons. It lent focus to their efforts.{15},{16}

Although work may appear exhaustingly oppressive, luminaries have embraced it as a noble ideal. Among them is the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and arguably America’s greatest president, Thomas Jefferson. He had this aphorismic gem to offer: The harder I work, the luckier I get. Commonplace though it may sound, it prompts the question: what is the root cause of good luck? Is there an element of determinism to it? Other benefits are that hard work preserves the agility of the mind, says Leonardo da Vinci. Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation... even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.

 Dedicated to their craft, illustrious scholars have lamented a lack of working time. The English novelist Winifred Holtby wailed: God give me work, till my life shall end; And life, till my work is done.{17} Facing death Archimedes of Syracuse{18} rued his inability to solve his problem due to the lack of time and Lord Kelvin said regretfully: If only we had thirty hours in a day instead of twenty-four, we might get some of our work done.{19}

This uncontrolled passion for work pushes against the traditional grain. We are told when God evicted Adam and Eve from that primordial garden of blissful idleness, He cursed the very ground on which they were made to toil. And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life…… In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground. Although work was thus perceived as divine punishment for that primal sin the deeper message being that pleasure is paid for in droplets of sweat – God’s currency if you will. But is it really a cursing God or a more compassionate One offering Adam and Eve a pathway to redemption through toil?

Work when viewed through the prism of the traditional Judeo-Christian belief system is seen as a curse devised by God to punish the pleasurable transgressions of Adam and Eve. Prior to the pronouncement of the curse, Adam and Eve reveled in comfort. Paradise, it was called. By extrapolation, to exist in a state of worklessness is to experience the paradise of Eden – a place of great beauty where supreme happiness reigns…. and no work.

Despite the apparent contradiction, the Christian Bible is abundantly clear on the value of human labor and takes a rather ennobling view. In fact, there is no real contradiction - only a question of interpretation.

However, not all religious sects regarded the institution of work as sacred. Some looked down upon work with haughty contempt and considered it secondary to religious duties. For them the ideal calling was the monastic life of prayer. This was not unusual in medieval cultures where voluntary work was discouraged as it ran the risk of blurring the distinction between slave and master.

The Greek attitude towards physical toil is reflected by their word for work: ponos meaning sorrow. While free men pursued the nobler occupations of commerce, architecture and sculpture, physical toil was decried as slaves’ occupation. Even skilled crafts were inappropriately assigned to slaves. The Greeks vilified intellectual exertion as well. In so doing they shunned the mechanical arts as it demanded the use pragmatic thought. {20} Hard work, whether due to economic need or under compulsion of an unsympathetic master, was treated with callous disdain.{21}

Plato and his student Aristotle – a polymath - believed the reason most men labored was to ensure the élite, might engage in pure exercises of the mind--art, philosophy, and politics.{22} For Aristotle, physical work was a reckless waste of time. In his unvarnished worldview, working subverted mental efforts that could have been channeled to the pursuit of virtue. Accordingly, physical work was a source of misery.{23} Moreover, the Greeks believed that a bank of leisure time was a reflection of personal discretion, morality, and wisdom. Leadership, in the Greek state and culture, was based on freedom from work obligations. This was the cultural norm. Breaches were a desecration of the moral fiber of the state. Not to be outdone were the Romans whose belief system was derived from the culture of the Greeks. The Romans too believed that physical work should be delegated to slaves. Only big business was suitable for free men. Although the Romans were industrious with demonstrable competence in organization, administration, building and warfare, pursuits like handicrafts offended their dignity. Such was the Roman conception of physical toil. {24}

Although slavery predated the formation of Roman Empire,{25} the deployment of slave labor escalated during the period of Roman imperialism. As the Roman Empire expanded, entire populations were subjugated, creating an ample supply of slaves from all over Europe and the Mediterranean. Greeks, Germans, Britons, Gauls, Jews and Arabs were enslaved for labor and amusement. The use of gladiators and sex slaves were glaring examples. This savage oppression by an elite minority culminated in several slave revolts. By the late Republican era, slavery had become the economic dynamo of wealth generation in Rome. According to some authorities, slaves represented over 35% of the population of Italy. Under the Roman Empire, there were about 400,000 captive slaves in the city of Rome. As the Empire flourished markedly over 100 million slaves were traded throughout the Mediterranean.{26} Expansion of the Empire increased the demand for large-scale production of grain which in turn increased the need for more slaves. As the numbers multiplied so was the harsh treatment meted out to the salves. Lacking fundamental human rights, these abjectly subservient beings were treated like vicious animals. In the cultural context of the day it all seems to mesh neatly; for the Romans viewed the fruits of salve labor a means of achieving the supreme goal of life – self-sufficiency and self-satisfaction.{27} A life of ease you may say. But it was this ethic of ease that led to the collapse of Rome. No one has so crisply captured the quintessence of the day like Murray Bookchin: The Fall of Rome can be explained by the rise of Rome. The Latin city was carried to imperial heights not by the resources of its rural environs, but by spoils acquired from the systematic looting of the Near East, Egypt and North Africa. The very process involved in maintaining the Roman cosmopolis destroyed the cosmopolis.{28}

The inevitable collapse of the Roman Empire ushered in the middle ages.{29} During this period, Christian thought molded the culture of Europe. Woven into the Christian fabric of work ideology were threads derived from the work ethics of the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. For these ethnic groups, work was still perceived as punishment by God for man's original sin. A life of prayer was deemed the vocational ideal. Hence, in monasteries monks performed religious and intellectual duties of the church whereas laymen tended to the manual needs of the community.

St. Thomas Aquinas was known to develop a hierarchy of professions and trades in which he ranked agriculture lowest, followed by handicrafts and commerce. They were considered to be worldly toil. Ecclesiastical tasks, nonetheless, showed deeper piety. These perspectives contrasted sharply with the expressed positions of the Benedictines, Rosicrucians, Freemasons and the oriental philosophers.{30} Zen Master Shosan Suzuki believed that true illumination came through dedication to one's daily routines. Prayer was irrelevant.{31}

Westerners view work as a necessary evil. More than 45% of Americans believe unflinching toil is futile.{32} A cursory examination of decals, bumper stickers and wall plaques not only confirms but exposes a dangerous subculture of work-o-phobia. Here are but a few cynical examples.

We pretend to work because they pretend to pay us.

I used up all my sick days, so I called in dead.

If work is so terrific, how come they have to pay you to do it?

My job drives me to drink. If it wasn't for that, I'd QUIT!

Work is an interruption of my day!

It's Been Monday All Week

Between 1880 and 1995 quantitative estimates show the amount of working hours per day fell by half, tripling the amount of free time. Owing to the decreased length of the workweek and the dwindling portion spent on paid employment over a lifetime, the fraction of time devoted to work is becoming absurdly small. If present trends continue, by 2040 less than one-fourth of discretionary time - time not needed for sleep, meals, and hygiene - will be spent on paid employment leaving three-fourths for leisure activities. In studies of men versus women, published data indicate that in 1981 women worked ten hours per week more than men. The good news is that in developing countries the time disparity appears to be shrinking. In 2015, it was found that women worked 6 hours more per week than their male counterparts.{33},{34},{35} The inference is that compared to women, men enjoy more free time. And this is not without consequences as you would see.

A plethora of reasons are adduced in support of the need for more leisure time. This incessant cry for more leisure hours has permeated the matrix of western societies. School boards are pressured to reduce school hours. Political leaders are inundated with petitions for more paid holidays. Organized labor all cry in unison for a shorter work week.{36} Politicians want fewer sitting parliamentary days to spend quality time with their families. The premise being more free time equals a more abundant life – not necessarily a productive one. Notwithstanding the invalidity of the premise, should this irreversible trend of work abandonment continue all that would left of the working life are but a few fidgety moments, a collapse of organized society and a tidal-size crime wave.

Despite the corrupting influence of mindless pastimes, the hot pusuit of pleasurable recreation has become a malignant obsession in modern societies. Whereas pleasure, cloaked in the garb of quality time, is to be relentlessly pursued, work on the on the other hand is to be studiously eschewed as if it were a grotesque curse. This spasm of pleasurable diversion is symbolized by the mad craze for pleasure-chasing toys such as SUVs, ATVs, Jetskis, Camper Wagons, Sailboats and High-powered Yachts, High-end Cars….and who could function without a private jet?

More tragic is that the younger generation is afflicted too. Forced-fed super-sized helpings of video junk, the youths dribble away their formative years on PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Microsoft Xbox 360 and others with pathological zeal. Worldwide over 25 million show symptoms of video gaming addiction with South Korea having one the highest rates.{37} About 88 percent of youths aged 8–18 in the US play video games and up to three million show addictive behavior - a new form of mental disorder. {38} A 2007 poll indicate that about 81% of youths spent about 8-14 hours per week gaming. Harris concluded that 8.5% of these may be neurotic cases. A similar study by the director of a media research and analysis company concluded: Video game addiction is a particularly severe problem in Asian countries such as China and Korea. Results of a survey indicated that 2.4% of South Koreans aged 9 to 39 suffer from game addiction, with another 10.2% at risk of addiction. Based on its own studies, The American Psychiatric Association has decided to include video game addiction as a disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.{39},{40}

In this thesis, effort is used broadly to mean the expenditure of human energy in purposeful endeavor: not necessarily service rendered for reward. Not only it is used synonymously with work but encompasses terms such as work, duty, toil, task, chore, job, employment, sweat, action, labor, industry, mental activity, effort etc. No distinction between secular work and religious work is recognized. The writer takes the view that all work are of equal value in that it provides the worker, if not with a livelihood but a sense of dignity and purpose. Laziness on the other hand is defined as the unwillingness to work whereas idleness is the absence of work. Because there is no such thing as the absence of work, idleness is but a symptom of laziness. A person may not be gainfully employed but there is always work to be done.

The book is divided into eight sections, each subdivided into chapters. Each chapter is independent and examines the work ethic of individuals, corporations, countries and empires. In each case the spectacular failure or flaming success of each entity is a function of their energy output. It is advisable, nonetheless, to treat PART 5 -NO SWEAT: NO EMPIRE - as a single unit.

In conclusion, I have attempted to integrate the religious philosophies, especially the concept of karma with the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Melding these two divergent schools of thought provides a logical understanding of why conscientious toil always wins. To put things in perspective, have you ever wondered why things disintegrate, degenerate, shatter, fracture, split, tear, break, break up, break down, rust, die, decay, wear out, rip, or move from a state of order to disorder? Or, given time, a sparkling new car, sequestered away in an isolated garage, will naturally disintegrate but a rusted old rattletrap would never revert to a shiny new one. And why not?

PART 1: THE HEIGHTS by GREAT MEN REACHED and KEPT..

Chapter 1

BILL GATES: A Businessman and a Philanthropist

Introduction

His appetite for work voracious; his focus intense. Nothing else mattered, except the task at hand. Such is the character of William Henry Gates. He founded Microsoft at age 20 and by his unremitting drive built it into a de facto world monopoly in software systems. At Microsoft, he was human dynamo – a manager, a salesman, a leader, a lawyer, a businessman. As a programmer, he wrote, developed and edited all software programs. His early vision was a computer in every home.

He exudes Olympian confidence and once told his Pastor he could do anything he puts his mind to. In his juvenile years, he had a compulsive urge to do the best and be the best. The combative spirit that blossomed during his high school years yielded fruit that benefited the US, and developing nations of Asia and Africa. He loves competing – and winning.{41} To this end, he extends himself beyond the normal call of duty. In elementary school, he was an assiduous student who worked long hours. His assignments went beyond routine expectations: given an essay of five pages, he reportedly wrote thirty. This scorching desire to transcend the normal limits of expectations separated him from his peers.

At a tender age he had developed the capacity to persevere against seemingly insurmountable, if not painful, odds and did so with pit-bull tenacity. On a fifty-mile summer hike, though his feet were raw and bleeding openly by the second day, he persisted until he could barely walk. His unconquerable will drove him until he was rescued by his mother on the fourth day of the hike.{42} A college dropout he may be; a quitter he is not.

Blessed with a photographic memory and an enviably disciplined work ethic, his claim of accomplishing anything he puts his mind to was prophetic. He was programming at age fourteen and founded Microsoft while he was at Harvard University. At age 40, he was listed by Forbes as the world’s richest man - the largest shareholder in Microsoft. Such is the story of William Henry Gates – Chairman Bill as he is fondly called.

At age 52 when most people in his commanding situation might consider retiring to the French Polynesian atoll of Bora Bora, Bill Gates decided to devote his energies to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is the world’s largest transparently run private foundation, with a magnanimous endowment $4.5 billion and a legal constraint to spend $1.5 billion a year on charitable projects around the world. As of May 16, 2013, Bill Gates had donated US$28 billion to the foundation.{43},{44} A gift from Warren Buffett of some $30 billion worth of shares in Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway put the Gates foundation into the league where its expenditure almost equals the entire annual budget of the World Health Organization.{45}

A Boy’s Life

Most of Bill Gates’ personal beliefs revolve around working hard to succeed. He does not believe in luck, just hard work and competitiveness. He believes that through diligent application of intelligence any goal is achievable. Ultimately, success is the product of unremitting effort. No doubt Bill Gates is a visionary but his unrelenting industry and competitive spirit enables him to execute his strategy and realize his vision.

To emphasize his diligence without saying he has a nimble mind is to do him injustice. In his juvenile years his competitive drive manifested itself when his Pastor challenged him to memorize the Sermon on the Mount, in return for dinner at the Space Needle.{46} He readily accepted the challenge. To the astonishment of the Pastor, he repeated the blank verse verbatim earning him the free dinner. At eight years of age, he had read the complete series of World Book Encyclopedia, beginning to end. As an infant he had learned to rock himself in his cradle. We are told the rocking habit has persisted into adulthood. And unlike his grade school peers, recess time was secondary to the task at hand. He would rather complete the task than have a break. Even in those formative years he exhibited a disciplined work ethic: he worked untiringly, often volunteering to do extra work.

To occupy himself fully, one of his voluntary assignments involved tracking down missing books at his primary school’s library. He not only mastered the Dewey Decimal System{47} of coding quickly, but seemed to relish the work. Upon being transferred to another school, he insisted on returning just to complete his unfulfilled assignment even though it meant a tedious walk home.{48}

High School Life

At Lakeside School,{49} his incandescent passion for computing flourished: all free time was devoted to the school’s teletype machine. He gluttonously devoured anything pertaining to computers and was known to hang out day and night in the computer room. Along with a close cadre of school mates, they enthusiastically consumed all allotted computer time leaving them wanting. They had become computer addicts. And lady luck smiled benevolently upon the passionate youngsters. Computer Center Corporation - they later christened C-Cubed - came to their rescue. According to the arrangement, for unlimited computer usage, these impatient computer hacks were supposed to check for and debug C-cubed programs. To Gates and his cohorts, - Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and Kent Evans{50} - it simply nourished their addictive behavior. Working weekdays, evenings, nights and weekends, they consumed copiously of the digital drug. Often, however, Gates would work well past midnight - frequently pulling all-nighters studying computer manuals and programming. At times he would sneak out of his basement late in the evening to spend most of the night at C-Cubed, often foraging through C-Cubed dumpsters for source codes negligently tossed out by C-cubed staff. There he would binge on more computer elixir; he had become addicted to the late night binges as well.

University Life

While at Harvard, Gates continued his hard work and excelled in the courses of interest. A well-publicized story is that he fell asleep during his Greek literature examination and still earned himself a decent B grade. Evidently, his work habits impacted his sleep pattern. Frequently, he would work flat out for 36 hours, sleep for 10 hours, get up, mindless of the hour, and resume his work.{51} On pressing projects, he would work continuously for days without sleep. Of his many gifts, is that he slept restfully, often with a blanket draped over his head. To break the academic tedium and nurture his competitive spirit, he played poker with the same fervor as his work interest - sometimes all night. When not at the poker tables he was in the computer room. Exhausted to a state of mental stupor, he would crash on the computer tables.

While pursuing his undergraduate degree, he learned of the opportunity to develop BASIC{52} - a language that translates higher-level instructions into assembler - for Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Service (MITS). He leapt at the prospect. Without having the requisite programs but not wishing to lose the opportunity, he and Allen informed the principal of MITS, Ed Roberts, they did indeed have a BASIC compatible with the configuration of his computer. The computer, fitted with an 8080 Intel chip, was named Altair after brightest star in the constellation.

There were some daunting strictures to landing the contract. The programs had to be written tightly to be nested in an Intel 8080 chip equipped with 4KB memory and had to run the very first time. Without the benefit of the machine to test the program the task must have appeared insuperable. Moreover, the feat had never been attempted and experts had advised it was undoable. But Gates was willfully obstinate. Moreover, the challenge to defy the experts must have added stimulus to his tenacity.

Back at Harvard, he and Paul Allen, his high school chum, worked feverishly. Ed Roberts had specified that he will only accept the most versatile program. To improve efficiency, the work was divvied up. Gates’ task was to write code for the BASIC; Allen to refine it. Along with Allen he worked at a suicidal pace and around the clock for eight weeks with little sleep – occasionally catnapping at the computer keyboard.{53} The efforts bore fruit. At the very first attempt the program worked astoundingly well. The microcomputer revolution had begun. Bill Gates had upended the conventional thinking of the experts who had predicted it was impossible to develop a high level computer language for the 8080 Intel chip: the program fitted into less than the 4K ROM with room to spare. It can be said that the first stones in the path leading to Bill Gates philanthropy were being laid. He had accomplished what he set his mind to. In 1975, Gates quit Harvard to join Allen who had already taken up a position with MITS, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Running Microsoft: The Early Days

In Albuquerque, he kept late hours. With the Altair running the BASIC effortlessly, Gates worked steadfastly refining the program. Although Gates was working at MITS, he was working for Microsoft. An office was assigned to Microsoft employees where Gates often crashed just as he did back at the computer lab in Harvard: sometimes on the floor.{54} But the partners had come to realize the Intel 8080 chip had limited functionality. To augment the capability of the machine, they started exploring the plausibility of using the new MC 6800 chip. They set about writing a new program for the MC 6800 completing the project within 10 days. As monumental as it may seem, it took Gates five days to write a new version of BASIC for MC6800 and five more to refine it to Disk BASIC.{55} To say Gates prided himself surmounting difficult challenges seems a redundancy in retrospect.

In the first five years of its inception, Gates poured his infinite energy growing Microsoft reluctantly taking an occasional day off. Having consolidated Microsoft’s position in the software industry, he continued his unrelenting efforts. His quest for knowledge was as insatiable as his lust for excellence. As such, during vacation time he is known to have read James Watson’s Molecular Biology of the Gene and other bioengineering texts. Sometimes he listened to tapes of Richard Feynman’s physics lectures – just to mention a couple of his leisure activities. {56},{57}

Time Usage

It is said he lived on the edge; that he always works with a full schedule. Perpetually striving to micro-manage his time he often caught his flights as the attendant was closing the door. An hour’s wait at an airport lounge prior to departure is grand waste of time, he is known to muse. To avoid his breakneck dash to the airport terminal, one of his secretaries did surreptitiously lead him to believe his flights were earlier than scheduled. Even preparations for important client meetings were hastily concluded at the last minute. Although not intentional, such events were molded by his tight schedule and not for the lack of effort.

Whether to save time or for fun Gates was always in a hurry. He drove fast and at times to his detriment. On one of his ground flights he reportedly spun his Porsche at 120 mph.{58} Time is precious and he continuously prods himself on how best he could utilize the moment. After a demanding business trip and without missing a beat, he would delve into his work. Invariably, he worked through the night. Even photo-ops were shunned; to him, a frivolous misuse of time. For him time is life….and who can argue with that.

On a typical day at Microsoft, he would arrive for work at mid-morning and leave well after midnight. As the CEO of Microsoft he was well known for dispatching emails in the predawn hours, his favorite time for such tasks. His late night work binges often meant that he would be late for staff meetings and his personal appearance was secondary to the more pressing business at hand.

His credo was hard work. To be around him was to work like him. In this context his friends became secondary. He was a stickler for maintenance of appointments and lost associates because of it. In comparison to Allen, Gates wanted to press on while Allen was more than contented to bask in the warm afterglow of his successes. Whereas Allen would take days off Gates would persevere. Allen tried to establish an equilibrium point between work and life; no such point existed for Gates. Work is life he maintained, no balance is needed.{59} He was never bothered by stories that described his work ethic as reprehensible. He was consumed by his work; moreover to work at his pace was to personally demonstrate a healthy work ethic to his employees. His disciplined schedule is but a living embodiment of the Confucian thought: Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. Programming was his obsession; the wellspring of his happiness. He loved it.{60}

Expectation from Employees

The development of Windows posed a colossal challenge to Microsoft. As many as thirty programmers were assigned to develop the product. Its development and completion consumed more than two years with the programmers working around the clock. The process of designing, writing, and testing Windows consumed about eighty man-years by some estimates.{61} They all worked long hours with Gates himself being part of the action. With his Clintonesque metabolism, he was always on hand cheering on his programmers - often late at nights. Gates’ expectations of his programmers were high, both in terms of their work quality and length of time devoted to their task. He expected them to work hard as he did - sixty to eighty hours per week.{62} One anecdote has it that after putting in more than a full day, and at about 8:00 pm an employee informed Gates he was retiring for the night. To which Gates reportedly quipped: Ahh, working half days again.{63}

No doubt Gates pushed his people as hard as he drove himself. But employees were never hectored into extended work days. There was a certain cultural aura at Microsoft that inspired employees to work long hours during the week and on weekends, often foregoing breaks.{64} Apparently, they relished the unregulated work hours. Employees felt free to have coffee, a beer, or sleep as they wished. Sometime to sleep was to collapse from exhaustion on the work floor – or desk - before a running computer.{65} Gates has acknowledged that some of his best times were sitting in his office at 2:00 am…… knowing his company was working.{66} By his tireless workmanship, he nurtured the work instincts of his employees. He, himself, had little social life.

Currently

To capitalize on his time, Bill Gates uses three computers - all synchronized to form a single desktop. This allows him the facility of dragging items from one screen to another. Of the monitors, the most important is the center screen with the specific task being addressed. The screen on the left contain a series of e-mails and the browser is on the right-hand screen.{67}

In the nascent days of Microsoft, the unspoken vision of Gates was to see a computer in every home, using Microsoft products. In the developed world, that vision became a reality 25 years later with more than 90% of computers using Windows as its operating system. {68},{69} Bill Gates has realized his life’s dream. Instead of resting on his laurels and retiring into self-indulgent luxury, Bill Gates is attempting to scale more challenging peaks – the elimination of AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Polio. To this end he has established a Global Fund administered by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.{70} On January 13, 2014, India proudly announced it had eliminated the scourge of polio. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation richly deserve credit for the success of the program. India’s success in eradicating polio is the greatest global health achievement I have ever witnessed, he said.{71}

Ever so modest of his accomplishments, he had this to say about himself and the company he founded: I loved my Microsoft: it prepared me for what I’m doing now. In the same way that I got to see the PC and internet revolutions, now I see child death rates coming down. I work very long hours and try to learn as much as I can about these things, but that’s because I enjoy it.{72}

Chapter 2

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON: A Gifted Politician

A Workaholic

Former President Bill Clinton is hyperactive and hyper-intelligent; always eager to learn; a keen listener; he loved the job. He is described by some as a man in motion with an incurable ambition and obsessive drive. Having the physiology of a nocturnal animal, he loves keeping late hours. Needlessly to say as President he worked till the predawn hours and once complained that he had an empty life except for work….and it is an obsession.{73},{74}  On admission to hospital to correct a cardiovascular irregularity the New York Times screamed: President Bill Clinton, a cigar-smoking workaholic whose family history of heart disease and passion for junk food had set him up for a heart attack.{75}

Joe Klein, political columnist for Time magazine and author of the novel Primary Colors,  eloquently depicted the restless spirit of a man driven to succeed thus: New Hampshire [1992] primary, well after his last scheduled public appearance, I found Clinton going from table to table at a local restaurant shaking hands, chatting with anyone willing to engage him. He went from restaurant to restaurant throughout the dinner hour, and then made a tour of the bowling alleys of Manchester – until just past midnight, when there were no more hands to shake, no more places to go except back to his hotel. He was exhausted and flu-ridden, his face was flushed, his eyes were red and bleary, but he was not quite ready to pack it in. ‘You want to bowl a game?’ He asked me.{76},{77} Such is the political animal that is Bill Clinton. His durable energy for the arduous work of politics was characteristic of the Presidency and the man. The professional work principles he adopted as student, governor and presidential candidate served his Presidency well. He pushed himself at a blistering pace: his daily schedule more filled with Executive Orders{78} and fund-raising events than any other president. Although no one questioned his workhorse mentality, his sizzling pace and thus lack of rest was the cause of concern among his staff.{79}

Clinton is supremely confident in his abilities and believes that success is the product of hard work. Of his unyielding dedication to his work, he once remarked: if you are willing to win in inches as well as feet, a phenomenal amount of positive thing can happen….if you love your country and have something you want to do and …….. you are willing to be relentless and exhaust yourself in the effort, the results will come.{80} This gem of wisdom is amply underscored by his achievements. During the first two years of his Presidency the results of his sincere dedication, tirelessness and willingness to defy conventional wisdom glowed blindingly.

Accomplishments

A partial list of the President’s accomplishments during his term is that he:

Created 6 million jobs.

Saw the lowest rates unemployment and inflation in 25 years

Cut taxes on low-income families while raising taxes on 1.2 percent of the high- income taxpayers

Reduced the deficit by over $600 billion – the largest deficit reduction plan in history.

Enacted The Family and Medical Leave Act which allowed 42 million Americans up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for child birth, adoption, or personal or family illness

Forced federal employees to make their child support payments

Made education a priority. It allowed Government student loans at a lower interest rate and with flexible repayment options.

Passed laws to ensure a national standard of excellence for public schools.

Made funding available to fight violence and drug abuse in schools.

Provided funds that enabled high school graduates to move to a job with a future.

Passed NAFTA resulting in increased exports to Mexico and Canada.

Championed the fight to pass GATT. It lowered tariffs worldwide by $744 billion over ten years, the largest international tax cut in history.

Got the EPA to make health protection cheaper and smarter.

Reduced unemployment in the Northwest and conserved ancient forests.

Negotiated a plan to protect California drinking water supplies to two-thirds of the population. It also provided irrigation for 45 percent of the nation’s fruits and vegetables.

Initiated the Partnership for

Reviews for The Eloquence of Effort

[Bill Blis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Eloquence of Effort: Beware the Path of Least Resistance by Indar Maharaj is a highly intellectual read, perfect for readers who enjoy deeply complex pieces that feed the mind. The intention is to assist in acknowledging the necessity of prioritizing ‘purposeful effort’, to view it as the source of healing, achievement, and long-term well-being for all.

Maharaj uses the lives of successful individuals, particularly their methods of work and the morals and values they lived by to show how a person’s overall nature is a direct influence on their accomplishments during their lifetime. By also including figures such as Robert ‘Iceberg Slim’ Beck, Bruce Reynolds, and Bernard Madoff who were known for their poor behavior and dark leadership styles (those venturing to criminal or anti-social behaviors), Maharaj has created a trustworthy judgment between praising certain figures, whilst ostracizing the lives of others. It is done so intentionally without force or haste, but so evidently it cannot be argued.

The use of figures such as Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Albert Schweitzer was a brilliant cipher for how the willingness to forego personal pleasures in lieu of the greater good – through healthcare, socio-political movements, and the environment – can manifest differently, but are all factors which have been possessed commonly by world leaders because they sought to serve selflessly. The three felt a supreme calling to identify with the needs of their fellow man. Maharaj’s analysis of these figures independently followed by a dual and triple comparative analysis marks a transparent maxim: leaders must be the instruments of change, for service which is rendered without joy helps neither the servant nor the served.

The Eloquence of Effort by Indar Maharaj contains a message for readers that is straightforward: just as work demands effort, effort demands work. This book is for readers wanting an enlightening and thought-provoking read with factual recounts of historical figures and world events, wrapped in a highly intellectual blanket that is done tastefully and tactfully.
Posted with permission of Literary Titan

[John Johnson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed reading “The Eloquence of Effort: Beware the Path of Least Resistance,” by Indar Maharaj and found it to be an intriguing, highly organized, and logical presentation of the benefits of hard work and diligence. And, in my opinion, the book also excellently shows the consequences of taking the easier or less resistant road in life.

I liked the way this highly intelligent author gives clear examples of the lives of people like Bill Gates, Mother Theresa, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, and other successful persons and points out certain things and aspects in their lives that led to the great contributions they made to the world.

For example, the author writes in depth about these high achievers and their nature and characteristics, and here is a brief excerpt about Schweitzer,

“The benevolent Doctor was both frugal and dynamic. The challenge of setting up and managing a hospital defied administrative wizardry. To conserve monetary resources, he would not as much as repair his piano channeling the money instead to the needs of the hospital. Shaving without the balmy benefit of soap and third-class travel became routine practices. To economize on stationery, Schweitzer utilized every scrap of paper, filling his note pads completely and adopting a tiny penmanship. Self-abnegation became an obsession.”

The author goes on to point out that although the path was difficult with many setbacks, the results were,

“Despite all its setbacks, the Hospital at Lambarene stands in proud recognition of the altruistic vision of Dr. Albert Schweitzer. Today, it is a cutting-edge institution on the African continent. The Medical Research Unit of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital, one of the leading scientific and clinical facilities in Africa, works steadfastly towards ending the scourge of malaria. The hospital also serves as a prestigious training campus for African physicians and scientists.”

Then he goes on to show examples of those who took “easy ways” or what they felt were “smarter ways” to get through life such as Bernie Madoff, Pablo Escobar, Enron Corporation, and other nefarious persons.
He writes in depth about them and for example about John Gotti,

“As dastardly nauseating as it may sound, his adult life’s work was succinctly summed up in his own words. When asked his purpose at the Ravenite Social Club, Gotti chillingly replied when we are not shooting people we play cards. He failed to mention some of his other criminal exploits such as narcotic trafficking, extortion, illegal gambling, pornography, union racketeering, robbery, business shakedowns, auto theft, and loansharking.”

And the author later points out in detail what happened in an easy come, easy go theme for the “Man who had it all”,

“His final ten years surpassed his worst nightmares. He was placed in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day in the harsh confines of Marion, Illinois, known as one of the most punitive of prisons in the United States. It serves as an ideal environment of retribution for irredeemably vile criminals. With nothing more than a small thirteen-inch black and white television set and a slab of concrete for bed, Gotti’s life was the embodiment of woe. His cell was described an above ground grave. But the worst was yet to come…”

I also like the way the author writes at a steady pace that kept my interest while bringing in new concepts and ideas that made me pause and reflect upon what I had just read. And that all made me enjoy this unique book which I found exceptionally interesting.

Also, the author writes in a penetrating style focusing on the concepts he is discussing while revealing new ways of looking at things giving the reader viewpoints that stayed with me.

I also believe this is one of those books I want to read a second or third time. There is a lot to learn and refresh ideas and concepts in this book. It is also fully referenced, and this excellent author worked extremely hard to write it -- just as his title suggests.

All and all, I felt this is a book everyone needs to read especially when faced with crossroads in life, choosing a career, or anyone who is faced with a major decision in life. Also, in my view, this is an extraordinary work that also provides reinforcement for anyone who ever has any doubts about choosing the difficult and straight and narrow road in life, especially when those around you seem to be taking the wrong road through life.

The author goes on to connect concepts of hard work, while sincerely and honestly pursuing the path one chooses to follow in life with thermodynamics and shows how that produces real joy in life.


Very well done, unique, and highly recommended!

It was my pleasure to receive a free copy of this book but that does not in any way affect my opinions in this review of this exceptional book.