Have a beautiful first week of December. It is Christmas time and we are full of joy expecting Christmas miracles. We believe that after the two years of the pandemic, in which many families are under stress and hard times because their revenues are down, or have been reduced; we all are praying for marvels of God in our lives. I am an intercession woman, I have repeatedly expressed several times that I usually pray when I swim. I have found this is the best time for me to pray. Why? Because when swimming I am silent. When my head is covered by water, leap by leap, I feel the occasion to pray to God. Since three weeks ago, swimming has been the bliss of delight again. Not just because I began to plunge in the pool again after the foot fracture rehabilitation, but because now I am praying again, and trust me, to find out how beautiful is to pray again under the water, it is another of our miracles. My prayers are for our economic recovery, for our celebrations´ revival with our families, for the endless appreciativeness of being alive.

Today we will cover the strategic philosophical meaning of shortsightedness, by explaining what is “long-term planning”.  We do not want to repeat, technically, what we have already produced for other past sagas. So if you wish to learn about shortsightedness in deep detail, do not forget to re-study the saga “The hare and the tortoise: The race is not too speedy”.

Long-Term planning at its roots.
I will explain what is the meaning of long-term planning based on my own story. I learned to gain an understanding of the phrase “long-term planning” by my shortsightedness.

Many of you know that I won the lottery to travel to Zurich and work for ABB (Asea Brown Boveri) after I graduated from Cornell University. One day in June of 1999, more than 21 years ago, I woke up living in Switzerland, and then, 2 years later I resigned to return to Central America. Why? I fell in love with a British, and naively I thought this man was the answer to my prayers for my future marriage. I was 30 years old then, and I thought this man was the gift of God for my long-term planning as a future wife, a future mom, etc. Given destiny, the relationship did not work out, and I took the wrong decision to return to Central America, to work for Mesoamerica Investments, an advisory and private equity boutique consulting company located in Costa Rica. It was the wrong decision because I was not ready to return. Impulsively, at that time I thought that by moving myself for a couple of years near my hometown, San Salvador; I was going to heal from a broken personal relationship. I thought that if I put an ocean of distance between Costa Rica and Switzerland, I was going to be able to restore fastly from a breakup with a man that was not meant to be for me.

The challenge from Switzerland to Costa Rica was the wrong decision. My shortsightedness was so sturdy foolish, inexperienced, and immature at that time; that I thought it was going to be easy for me to return to Switzerland. At that time, I thought if I did not like Costa Rica, I was going to travel to Zurich again. Nevertheless, my initial commitment was to stay in San José for 2 years, and then return to Heidi´s Alps land.  What a silly Eleonora I was then!

Surprise, surprise. I did not enjoy residing in Costa Rica. The shock of being in Mesoamerica, a little company of fewer than 23 employees; compared to ABB which was at that time, a multinational conglomerate of more than 100,000 employees, hit me. The impact of the change of residence, the shift of friends, the cultural differences was too high, so I couldn´t accept San José as my new hometown. When September 11^th, 2001, occurred, I saw the Twin Towers melting from a TV that was hanging at one hotel located in front of our office. When watching CNN over there, I started to cry. I couldn´t believe the horror we saw that day on TV. And I apprehended in between my tears, that the world was going to change. I also felt that the illusion of hope for my plans to go back to Switzerland would disappear. I felt nothing was ever going to be the same after then. I resigned from Mesoamerica in November 2001. And I couldn´t return to The Suisse as I originally intended. As any consulting professional on earth, we depend upon our salaries. If we don´t get a paycheck month by month, we can´t afford our lifestyle or our fixed expenses. After my great resignation, I couldn´t provide myself with the income that was required for my survival in Costa Rica. I tried to go back to Zurich. After Costa Rica, in bankruptcy, I decided to return to El Salvador, to my parents’ place. And stay for another two years, because I had to fulfill 2 years of the Fulbright Scholarship requirement. After the year 2005, even though I was free to leave, I couldn´t do it. I have been unable to. Since then I have tried with all my soul to find opportunities to go back to Zurich, as a banker, as a consultant, as a United Nations employee, as a Red Cross from Geneva executive, as a financial advisor… I mean it, I have tried it all. I have sent tons of CVs and cover letters to go back to Europe. And here I am, still 20 years later, single, without a husband, without kids, without money. Living at expense of my parents, and praying in the pool of my swimming workouts for a miracle, for the wonderful blessing that my publications or paintings can be sponsored soon, that I can marry Alex Guillermo Lozano Artolachipi and have babies. That God can help me to move out from here.

All I have ever wanted is to marry a man that could cherish and love me with all his soul. Nothing will make me happier than that. But, it has not happened. And for years, I had no idea why I wasn´t able to be invited to dates or to go out. No single man of El Salvador ever tried to ask me out. I had no idea why no one dared to date me. I am not an ugly lady to a point of not attracting someone from El Salvador. When living in Zurich I had to hide from dates, because these copious alternatives existed. But nothing in El Salvador. Twenty years have passed, and I am still waiting. Last year, I discovered that tons of gossip were thrown over me. Rumors of all types of categories, by someone who did not want me to marry Alejandro 20 years ago. And it has been a nightmare to acknowledge this reality. Being heterosexual, someone invented I was lesbian. Being completely healthy, someone devised I was sick. Being a full well-prepared professional woman, with 2 master’s degrees and a Fulbright scholarship, someone created the gossip that I was a domestic servant. Being a non-partisan person, someone created the fiction that I was communist and/or neo-liberalist. Being a pro-life noblewoman, someone accused me of abortion, without knowing I have never been pregnant, without appreciating how much I have aspired to have babies. Being a daughter of God, someone destroyed my reputation with so considerable speculations that still I am not able to publish them here. Being completely normal expecting to marry a man of my age,  someone destroyed my life with gossip that I was a cougar searching for men below my age, or looking for older “green” men who don´t want to have babies. I reassure you I am not interested to mingle with Salvadoran married men who are not my cup of tea, or with older or younger men than me. I know of my worth value, I don´t need to accept a man that is not 100% free, or who is older or who is too young, or who is totally incompatible with what I wish from a man.

What is long-sighted planning? Someone with long-term planning will not do what I did when I broke up with my boyfriend in Zurich. I simply had to cool down. And let time pass. I had an offer from Credit Suisse First Boston to join their team. And I had a new promotion to stay at ABB Structured Finance. I simply had to let the water pass by, and wait for a new man there. That is what I had to do. But I didn´t do it, because I was angry with myself for being so silly and childish. Ignorant of what was awaiting me in Central America. I wish so much I had had a good friend then, that could have retained me in Switzerland.  

Only someone who knows the blessing of living in the most beautiful country in the world would have minded for it. But I was so stupid then… Someone who understands the loops of change, and the seasons of time for healing, would have endured remaining in Switzerland no matter what, no matter who, no matter which, no matter how. Someone who comprehends that the beauty of being successfully human is conferred just to those who understand the beauty of searching for a partner, of creating an own family… And trust me, I would have done it, if I had remained in Switzerland. If I would have sustained the adversity of a break-up. My most beloved dreams which were to marry a man, build a family of mine (be pregnant) and have children to love me and grow with me would have happened in Switzerland. I am convinced of it. However, I was completely out of my mind. I took the wrong turn in life, simply because of a broken heart season. I was lacking long-term planning. I was full of short-sightedness.

We pay the consequences of our actions. Sooner or later. I have paid the wrong decision of returning from Zurich with 20 years of solitude. I have paid for sins and gossip that were not true. I have paid the price of not knowing what was the meaning of Switzerland after Cornell University. I have paid with time, a censure and condemnation for things I never did, for things I never thought of doing. When someone doesn´t understand that whatever you do in the present can condemn you or raise you; we take life and the blessings of God for granted. We do not know it until it is too late. The same will happen with all this mess caused by the cryptocurrencies, and all the disruptive technologies in place. The same will happen, when the children of our children will have to see our planet in disgrace, attacking us in the present for not doing anything to care for the species, the oceans, the air, the waters in addition to the beauty of our planet. It will be worst to see our planet in hell, caused by atomic ogives handled without care, or when the whole continent of Africa will perish because of lack of rain and water. Finally, the same will happen, with excellent artistic venues disappearing in the hands of keyboards and tablets. Theatre, visual arts (painting, sculpture, architecture), music, dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature. All our artistic production will be in the hand of machines!!! A frightful movie of terror. And, I can go on, and on, and on to name the extent of things that we are doing incorrectly, because of our excessive greed, and wrong application of corporate strategy… but it is up to those who are in the high places to comprehend it. Otherwise, we are going to continue running in the wrong direction to a point in which robots and machines will make the decisions for us.

I still pray, and I won´t stop praying until God can grant me the miracle for my marriage with Alex Guillermo Lozano Artolachipi (he has the same age as me), and for the miracle of my future babies with him.

I will stop here. Next week, I will write as a corporate strategist. Not as the Eleonora woman who is loyally and faithfully devoted to her Alejandro. We will offer you our particular abstraction approach to portfolio analysis.

Why did we decide on the song “Esta es mi Patria”? Simply because it is a Salvadoran production. We wanted you to see where we stand when it comes to our original music. This type of production is a miracle.

The song of today is a sweet melody from the group Lifehouse. The name of the song is “You and me”. I also have added the interpretation of the same song by Allen and Bright Duo.

See you next Tuesday. Two more publications and we will finish this saga. We are so near to concluding it. Thank you for reading to me.  

Disclaimer: Illustrations in Watercolor are painted by Eleonora Escalante. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY. Nevertheless, the majority of the pictures, images, or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.

Published by eleonoraescalantestrategy

Corporate Strategy Artist, San Salvador, El Salvador View all posts by eleonoraescalantestrategy