A World of Mercenaries

A World of Mercenaries 

Are you good at sport? I mean very good, good enough to be in the top competition? The answer is most likely the same as I would give, no. Well let us pretend that you are that good, at least until the end of the article.

Your so good that everyone around who's even vaguely interested in your sport and lives locally knows it. You've heard it from people you respect and soon the scouts come looking for you. They offer you big money, alot more than you've every seen before. But what do you think people would say if you turned the scouts down? Would they admire you or think you were mad? I'm sure it would all be alright when you explained that you would rather stay with you local team and live a life without all of the trappings that come with that sort of life.

In time people would move on but I doubt you would ever really live down the idea that you gave away fame and fortune for loyalty. People would shake theirs heads in disbelieve. Because it is so accepted that when we hear the sirens call we will answer, that we are powerless to resist. Most don't have a good reason to turn down an offer like that. But every time I see teams recruiting I think of all of the broken loyalties, of all the players joining teams they couldn't care less about.

Just the other day I saw young footballers on tv who had been drafted by teams they didn't barrack for, effectively renouncing the teams they had supported and I wondered if I was the only one shaking my head. I don't blame these young men, they are simply doing what they have been taught is right. That Loyalty is for sale.

But it's not just sports were the world of the mercenary exists. Business is of course the real home of the mercenary. Not because Business is without scruples but because when your goal is simplified to only making money how can it really matter if you make it in a good way or a bad way?

Only a few years ago a large Australian company lost hundreds of millions of dollars in a year and the executives still got bonuses, when confronted about this the CEO said that the board had no choice but to pay the bonuses because the year before they had lost money and not paid bonuses and executives had left. As hard as it may be to believe, but once upon a time, not that long ago executives expected to serve most of the their career at the same company and they stayed loyal to the company because it was loyal to them. It seems that when you treat your executives as mercenaries thats exactly what they become.

I for one am opposed to the world of the mercenary.



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