More than once I turned down the opportunity of fortune or, let’s say, a certain financial security. Here are three examples. The first was with Paris Vision. The owner, Mr. Georges, if I remember his name correctly, offered me a career in the company. With a little determination and my knowledge of languages I knew I could have become an excellent organizer of Paris Vision and earned some good money, but I turned it down. The second opportunity occurred in Australia, at the European School of Languages, in fact. The parents of Rebecca G. ( whose mother, Mrs. G., in order to get to know me, had attended one of my French courses for two years, even though she knew French better than me) wanted to marry me off to their only daughter, and if I had accepted, a villa and half a million dollars would have been included in the package. Rebecca, who taught English at my school, was apparently in love with me but I, unfortunately, was not in love with her. So I turned down this splendid offer. The third occasion also concerned my school. I had somehow, instinctively, turned into a miser, something which had always been totally alien to my nature but which developed once money started to fall into my pockets so easily. Then I would feel a greedy shiver, the call of money demanding more money. I no longer wanted to spend, I just wanted to save, pile it up, put money in the bank. I got to the point where I would even deny myself the purchase of a book that I really wanted! In short, I no longer recognised myself. So I sold the school, putting an end to the temptation to become yet another worshipper of the god of egoism.
