Last Monday morning I remember bringing a mango to eat at the office – Yes, I like mangos and they’re an easy item to snatch from the kitchen counter on the way out the door. It’s true, they can be messy, but the taste of a perfectly ripe mango more than justifies the risk of a dry cleaning bill. Then my mind had a bout of mango amnesia.
Wednesday, I flew to Santa Barbara for a financial conference and then Thursday to Denver for a board meeting with an institution interested in green investing with my company, Abacus – Changing the World One Portfolio at a Time.^TM
Everyone is at the top of their field, a very impressive group of eight people comparing my firm to two others. I’ve been up since 4:00 AM in order to get to Denver in time and I’m exhausted and famished by the end of the three hour meeting.
I rush to the bathroom, reach into my backpack for the almonds I brought with me to refuel my empty tank and I feel something soft. Oh, it’s the mango, and one that’s going to be very messy to eat. I can’t leave it in my pack – it’s about to burst and spread mango on all my papers. I can’t just throw it out – that would be a waste of money and of my favorite food. Part of my money madness is about financial security being the most important thing in life and if you throw out something you paid money for, you’re diminishing your financial security. I find my money monster driving me to eat that mango, before it goes really bad, and satisfy my low blood sugar, my money monster and protect my financial security. Of course, it’s an irrational thought that eating a mango will protect my financial security, but that’s the nature of money madness. It drives us to crazy behavior around money.
But, wait, what if one of the board members comes into the bathroom? They said they all had meetings to get to, so it shouldn’t be a risk. I yank out the mango, rip into it over the sink, mindfully so as not to force a trip to Presto Dry Cleaners. Just as I’m done, a stall door opens (the bathroom was quieter than quiet when I entered) and the Chairman of the Board approaches a sink, two down from me. I hurriedly clean up my sink and my face, feeling my heart beat faster. I say hello Stan (thinking I’m so grateful you left the stall at the end of the mango instead of the beginning).