After the national bestsellers "Make Money With Shakespeare", "Franz Kafka As Motivational Writer" and "Business Secrets of The Prophet Elijah", there's a new business guru in town: Carlos Kleiber, of all people.
Friend of OC Tim Mangan reports on a bizarre story in "Portfolio".
Columnist Felix Salmon argues that Kleiber's system -- making himself scarce, then overcharging for his very rare gigs only when his savings were about to run out -- is the way to go even in business:
I like this kind of attitude. Go off and earn a bunch of money, use it to live well, and then, when it runs out, repeat. It's not just conductors who can do this, or performers in general: lawyers can do it too, if they go "of counsel", and the world of management consultancy is full of such people, who prefer a life of adventure to one shackled to a desk.
Of course only a partypeWper would dare to point out that Carlito's way was not exactly a business plan but the poisoned fruit of a lifetime of insecurity, sadness, crippling self doubt and a neverending war of nerves against the very scary unescapable presence -- even after the old man's death -- of that father of his (who wasn't even really his father after all, probably).
But "Wear Your Genius As A Crown Of Thorns, Live a Life of Heartbreak, Then Proceed To Die of the Same Heartbreak" doesn't make for a catchy business book title, I suppose.
