Chapter 4: The Magical Reading
In the dimly lit room, where soothing music was barely playing, Lavine managed to stay awake only by the smell of lemongrass that incensed the opaque air.
While he was amazed by the exotic ambience around him, his eyes could not help but keep moving back towards the crystal ball in front of him.
His chain of thought was interrupted by the firm knocks at the door.
A tall man in business suit with striking features entered the room.
“Hi you must be Lavine. I am Keith. It’s nice to meet you finally.” Keith said as he held eyes contact before reaching out to share Lavine’s hand assertively.
“I was thinking what I would say to you as I knew you were coming to me. Would you like to hear what you wanted to hear or what would be true?” Keith said.
“Just tell me exactly what I will become when I grow up!” Lavine demanded.
“In my line of work, I can only give you hints of your future.”
“Ok give me the hints!”
“There you go!” Keith exclaimed as he put down the report above the crystal ball. The report somehow stayed flat as if it was flowing in the air above the crystal ball.
Lavine’s mouth was left opened in amazement as he saw what had happened.
“What! How?”
“It is amazing isn’t it!” Keith commented proudly.
“There is a transparent plane above the crystal ball that you cannot see under the dim lighting to hold the report. Reality is more than your eyes can see after all.”
“O…I see” Lavine replied with a hint of disappointment.
“This is your report about the probabilities of your future career. While can read the details later, it suggested you have a 42% chance to work in Sales, 26% in finance and accounting, and 19% in legal practice.”
“What? I thought I came here to have a reading by a fortune teller? Not reading a report, but having my fortune told!”
“Well, you are having your fortune told. Just in a more scientific way. Based on what you told us earlier about your background such as your gender, age, schools you went to, information about your parents, IQ test score, EQ test score, Personality Test result, genetic sample test…etc, our artificial intelligence system will compare and analyze your data against our statistics and databases.”
“I did fill in some personal information, but how did you get my IQ test score, EQ test score, Personality Test result, and even my genetic sample test result?”
“You friend who referred you to me gave me your signed consent to have access to those…”
“O…the form I signed.”
“Since I only accept client through referral, I assumed you friend did at least explain to you about the consent form?”
“Ah…no worry. I trust him and I am ok to give those consent.”
“Okay…”
“So my past control my future?”
“Not exactly. It merely suggested that you would be more likely to take certain paths over the other ones.”
“Then why do I need to be here? You can just send the report to my home?”
“You mean why do I even have a job?”
“O…sorry I didn’t mean that. I just…unless the report is different to understand by the untrained eye?”
“No. The report is easy to understand and designed for the untrained eye. It will basically tell you the internal and external factors that influence what career path you would be likely to take with the probability percentages similar to what I told you earlier. The internal factors include what you would enjoy doing and what you would be good at doing. The external factors include parental influences, financial circumstances and accessibility to education.
“Let me explain my job. Assuming all the self-declared information including the personality preferences are accurate, they are all facts which do not mean anything to the computer. But to the individuals, they may bear significant personal meanings. For instance, according to statistics, 99% of the student studied in certain high school would not go on to the University. Keeping other variables constant, the report will suggest you have less chance to go to the University. However, you decide to enroll in that high school because of your late father attended that high school but had to quit to work full time taking care of his family. Studying every day in the school that reminded you of your father, which motivated you to study hard and actually increased your chance of going to the University. We, human beings, assign meanings to things that happened in our lives. The special meanings that we give to ourselves drive us to not only achieve great things but also great joy along the way. If it is meaningful enough for you, you can pursue the career that you only have 0.1% chance of succeeding. When you read about some extraordinary people achieved great things against all odds, those are the exceptional examples I am talking about. However, besides lucks, it will take a lot of determination, hard works and perseverance.”
“Ok! I’m glad to be here. Please let me what I need to do now?”
“Let me ask you some questions. Can you remember an extremely emotional event in your life?”
“Em…I remember the moments where I was playing with my dad when I was a little kid. He was the hardest worker in the world. He taught me a lot of new things every day. He would tell me interesting stories. He always put family above and beyond everything else including himself. Those were some of the happiest moments of my life. But one day, it all stopped as I never saw him again. My mother initially told me he was on a long business trip, so I would wait for him every day but he never came back. I later found out he died during an operation because of a malpractice of a doctor who did not have a license. I still did not know the details but the operating tools were not properly cleaned and sterilized, so it caused infections and complications. We did not really have the kind of money to go to a licensed doctor…”
“What was your emotion about the event?”
“I felt and am still feeling angry and frustrated.”
“At what? About what?”
“I am angry and frustrated at myself about not being able to come up with the money to pay for my dad to go to a proper doctor.”
“But you were only a kid at the time?”
“I know that logically. But you are asking how I feel…”
“How do you feel about your mom in the event?”
“I thought she could have…I know don’t know. I don’t really want to talk about it.”
“You know it’s ok to talk about things you don’t really want to talk about, don’t you? We don’t have the chance to talk about things that we don’t really want to talk about, don’t we?”
“I thought she could have done something different. She could have borrowed the money to send Dad to a proper hospital. I thought she could have told me the true instead of lying to me.”
“You think your dad died because of your mom?”
“No! That was not what I meant.”
“You said your father would put family above himself. Would it be applicable to that situation? What if your mom did try to borrow the money but your dad refused? Maybe he didn’t want to put the financial burden to the family?”
“I didn’t think about it that way…”
“But does it really matter? Even if your mom didn’t do anything different, do you think she had tried her best for her husband given the circumstance? If she told you the true at that time about your dad’s passing away, would it made you feel better? Did she do it to protect you or to take advantage of you for her own benefit?”
“It does not matter…”
“Ok. Let’s talk about what does matter. How could the event be different and better?”
“My dad would have gone to a proper hospital with a great doctor operating successfully on him without worrying about the money and he will be recovered shortly.”
“Is it realistic?”
“Well of course not. He died already.”
“No I mean it is realistic for your dad to get the operation and forgot about paying the hospital?”
“My dad was a hard worker he would pay them back after he recovered. Moreover, I will help to earn money too.”
“It is ok for your dad to lie about not having the money to pay for the operation before he was admitted to the hospital?”
“No, my dad won’t lie about it and I hate lying.”
“So, being truthful is important and meaningful to you?”
“Yes.”
“How about money? It is important to you? After all, if you have a lot of money, your dad would still be alive.”
“Money is useful, but I am not sure if I would call it important. I came from a poor family, but we were happy. After my dad died, my mom spent most of her time working so we rarely spent quality time together like we used to. I am sure if a billionaire gave us the money for free to pay for the operation, our dad would not be comfortable in accepting it as he didn’t earn it. He used to teach me to add values to others’ lives and the money will come.”
“So, Contributing Values To Others and Spending Quality Time With Family are meaningful to you?”
“You can say that.”
“How about the doctor? Admitting into a proper hospital does not mean the doctor would be great.”
“Yes, the doctor must be great.”
“What is your definition of being great doctors?”
“Being competent. Spending a lot of time improving their skills. Caring about their patients. Knowledgeable.”
“Ok, Great doctors are competent doctors then?”
“Yes.”
“To summarize, Truthfulness, Contribution, Quality Time With Family and Competence are meaningful to you?”
“Yes.”
“So, the ideal scenario for you would be something like: Your father told the hospital that he couldn’t afford the operation now but would like to be submitted. The hospital accepted your father and agreed he could pay it back in installments after he recovered. A competent doctor operated on your dad successfully. You earned money by contributing values to others to help repay the hospital bill and you spent quality time with your dad and mom.”
“That’s would have been perfect.”
“Not yet. We have not figured out what you will actually do in that ideal scenario.”
“O…I nearly forget..”
“The key would be what you do every day to earn money that can add values to other people’s lives, especially those people whom you care about the most. This is where your Report comes in usefully. According to your Report, you are likely to become a Salesperson, Accountant, or Lawyer. Would any of the three jobs you do ring any true to you if you are to do it every day in your ideal scenario?”
“em…not really.”
“How about teacher, policeman, fireman, business executive…or doctor?”
“Doctor? What is my chance?”
“You have a 7% chance of becoming a medical doctor.”
“Did you say people can still do it and succeed even if the Report said it was unlikely?”
“Yes.”
“Great! Please tell me what I need to do.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“This is your life. I can help to you decide which path to take or even create your own path. You need to figure how to get there. May I ask you why you now want to be a doctor?”
“It’s never crossed my mind until we have this conversation. I know roughly what I love doing as well as my strengths and weaknesses are. I can see where the suggestions of the Report are coming from. I love talking to people and making new friends. I am always good at and enjoy the challenges of arguing with people. My Maths scores have always been high. I can still make money by being a Salesman or something, but it just doesn’t feel right in that scenario. But when I heard Doctor, it all made sense. If I can become a great doctor and an authority in the industry, I may become influential enough to change the policy of the hospital so that people like my dad can be accepted to the hospital even if they have not had the money yet. People spent their future income with credit card. Why can’t patients do something similar? If I can be a great doctor, I can be the competent doctor that treats patients like my dad. My contribution will be treating my patients and making them healthy so they can spend quality time with their families.”
“I think you are getting it! When I look at your Report in more details. You can use your Maths skills to master the relevant subject like Biology and Chemistry. You can use your communication and interpersonal skills to engage and build trust with your patients. You can put together and present a strong argument for changing the hospital policy.”
“Hang on a second. We are changing the recommendations of the Report, aren’t we? I thought you said this is a scientific approach?”
“I said more scientific not purely scientific. Deciding what a person would become is not difficult, you can refer to the statistics. However, to decide what someone truly want to do every day is beyond science. It is an art form.”