A former Wall Street banker has swapped the world of finance for religion
and become a monk.
Brother Nikanor advises former colleagues to put a jar with soil on their
desks to remind them where we are all heading and what matters in life. As
western banks fold into each other like crumpled tickets and commentators
portray the current crisis as the last gasp of modern capitalism, Hristo
Mishkov, 32, shares the pain - and offers home truths. His story partly
resembles that of Brother Ty, the monk-tycoon protagonist of the 1998 satire
'God is my Broker' by U.S. writers Christopher Buckley and John Tierney - he
failed on Wall Street and became a monk.
But 10 years later, the similarities are superficial:
the Bulgarian had a successful broking career, does not write self-help manuals
and aims to get happy, not rich. His interest in financial markets began under
communism in the 1980s when he and other children created their own play stock
exchange in their apartment block's basement in Sofia.
Five years ago, after failing to find happiness in the life he lived, the
Christian Orthodox who hadn't practiced as a child quit the New York-based
market for a dilapidated Bulgarian monastery that once served as a communist labor
camp. Retaining one luxury - a mobile phone, which connects him with both
potential donors and former trading colleagues - he has brought the rigour of
his broking experience to his faith. He has helped to raise hundreds of
thousands of levs (dollars) to rebuild the monastery - a hard task in a country
where charity is not part of the mentality and building shopping malls and golf
courses is a priority.
'Many people... in the world do not realize that they have not earned the food they eat, that they take without giving,' Mishkov said. 'But if someone consumes more than they have earned, it means someone else is starving.
'It is right to see people who consume more than they deserve shattered by
a financial crisis from time to time, to suffer so that they can become more
reasonable.'
Being a trader has seldom been more traumatic: placing bets on political
decisions about billion-dollar bank bailouts which, if they fail, could mean
much more than a bad day for yourself or colleagues, but also jeopardize
livelihoods. Some have found solace in religion, others in humor, but a few
fall. Surveys show traders reporting more stress and every news report of a
trader suicide is accompanied by suggestions the pressure may have been too
much.
'We always search for happiness in the outside world, in material things,
which makes us constantly unsatisfied, angry with ourselves and the world,'
said Mishkov, who exudes a sense of tranquility, intelligence, and humor.
Greed and the marketization of our lives have reached the point where people have been turned into a commodity - even their health can be traded like a stock, he said. 'We have so quickly lost our human appearance, we have become beasts ... There's no-one to count on and say "hey neighbor come help me". He will come but demand a payment.' His monastery, tucked among hills 31 miles west of Sofia, was founded in the 12th century. The communist regime which banned religion turned it into a labor camp, then a children's pioneer camp and a livestock farm.
Now Mishkov works hard every day milking buffalo cows and building stone
walls. He says he is not against rich people but can only respect those who
contribute to the good of society - pointing to Microsoft founder Bill
Gates as an example.
As a younger man working for more than two years for Karoll, one of
Bulgaria's leading brokerages, Mishkov was good at his job, former colleagues
say. 'He was a religious person and that annoyed me sometimes,' said Alexander
Nikolov, head of international capital markets at Karoll.
'There were occasions when he would not show up at work because of some
religious holiday.'
His
colleagues were stunned when he decided to become a monk, but Mishkov felt the
time had come to look after people's souls. 'Everybody can be a good broker but
this does not bring much benefit for the world,' he said. 'Religion can help
people cope in today's stressful times and find answers,' Mishkov added.
Churches in New York's financial district reported last month increased
attendance at lunchtime meetings, with many more people in business attire than
usual, when some of the world's biggest investment banks collapsed.
Steven Bell, chief economist of London hedge fund GLC, said keeping a sense
of reality is what traders needed. 'It is very important to just remind
yourself that there is a real world out there. In any job but particularly in
financial markets, you need to try and keep your feet on the ground,' Bell
added.
Mishkov says the crash should also help correct a dangerous global trend of
an excessive outflow of labour to the service sectors, by people attracted by
high pay and an easy life. 'Milk is not produced by computers, bread doesn't
come from a good company PR. It is necessary to plough, sow and harvest before
that,' says the monk.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1067224/Wall-Street-banker-swapped-finance-monk-remote-Bulgarian-village.html
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