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Author’s note

Many people dream of finding the ‘philosopher’s stone’. My own quest for it permeated my creative work and take on entrepreneurship.

Our world is immeasurably complex and varied, yet there are certain patterns of human behavior. Love and hate, selflessness and envy, friendship and betrayal, are but small grains of heritage that someone once spilt on the ground and forgot to pick up. Small they may be but how many mysteries and intricacies they create in our destinies.

Parable of ‘White’[1] Envy

It is normal to be happy for your loved one, an acquaintance, your next door neighbor or someone everyone knows. It is normal, end of story. It is part of human nature.

Your parents were naturally happy for you when you started toddling earlier than others or began to recite poems better than your peers. Neighbors and nursery school teachers were happy, and, as time went on, so were your friends and schoolmates, colleagues and bosses. For many years you tried to do everything better than others. You hated to be just like everyone else. You always wanted to win and be first! It may have taken you years, even soured relations with your friends from kindergarten, school or university, but it has always been important to get the result you wanted. There was no time for looking back. No time to drop by for a game of cards or pool, no time to visit someone who had fallen ill, no time to have a drink or chat.

Then, some ten years later, after completing your education and stepping onto the first rung of the career ladder, you find yourself surrounded by people who admire your achievements. Not just happy for you but admiring you. Those who work with you, and thos