Collecting without sophistication is just clutter

 

A business call at 8:30 on Saturday night, to our home number, is kind of unusual. "He says he knows you,” said Tanya. The name did ring a bell, but I couldn’t think of any reason why someone so distant would call me so late, interrupting the only quiet evening of the week. Our caller—let's call him Tom—was an elderly gentleman, and a fellow countryman who migrated to Australia in the 1960s. Tom's story is typical: he arrived penniless, worked 7 days a week, 16 hours per day, saved hard, and invested wisely. Extremely wisely. Tom proudly enjoyed his status in the migrant community—the status of a reputable man who earned his wealth in an honest way. "Mr Tom, what can I do for a fifty million dollar man?" I asked him He laughed the compliment off, “Close, but not quite 50 million. Not yet!” Indeed, my countryman spoke as though he knew me, directly, and without hesitation. "I am downsizing,” he said. “The big house is on the market, and today I've started packing my stuff. I have a dozen or so watches, I’m wondering if you’d be interested in my watch collection?” As it turns out, the most valuable watch in his collection was a 1980s Tissot. "Sorry Mr Tom, I have to pass, but thank you for giving me a chance,” I replied. "So my watches are completely worthless?” he said. “I’m not surprised. Quite frankly, most of the stuff in my garage is not worth much either. I have four digital cameras, video players, boxes and boxes of unopened VHS tapes, suits I never wore, gold clubs I never put to good use. Toys saved for retirement—a retirement that never happened.” I tried cheering him up. Surely, some of his belongings would have some value to a collector, or an online trader? "Now that you've mentioned it, I do have a collection of pens, about 200 of them. While I was in business, a sales rep would stop by every now and then and give me a plastic pen. I've saved them all." I had no choice but to point out the obvious: two hundred pens of the same colour, model, and shape, all stamped with the same company logo, is not a collection. It is a pile of junk. Undeterred, Tom went on, in detail, for a solid hour—from the day he arrived in a new country, to the point in life when he could afford any house west of Strathfield he wanted. Over the years he owned 34 cars, mainly Mercedes. He travelled the world. And yet, something was missing, or as he put it: "I didn’t know what I really wanted, and even if I knew, I would not have had the time to enjoy it. I wanted my money to be my legacy.” As strange as it may sound, money itself is not a legacy. Legacy comes when sophistication is put into action. The Great Pyramid of Giza is a mighty legacy because it was built by a sophisticated pharaoh. The same can be said for the Great Wall of China, or the Eiffel tower. All sophisticated collections—from paintings and bronze, to coke cans, Lego sets, and McDonald’s memorabilia, to even Barbie dolls—they all have one thing in common: they are legacies of sophisticated collectors. For Tom, money was not an issue, but he lacked sophistication. He failed to learn the language, to invest in education, to read, to connect with, and learn from sophisticated people. Ultimately, by his own admission, he failed to create a meaningful legacy that would, like a pyramid, point to and speak for its maker for many millenniums to come. Or at least, to every now and then invest in a plastic pen of a different colour, imprinted with a different logo. "I see where you're heading with this”, you may say. "You want to sell more watches to subscribers— mainly elderly gentlemen—by playing on the idea that collecting watches is, if not the ultimate, then at least a worthwhile legacy". Actually, on the contrary. My message is to my youngest readers, those who are curious about the world, have a sparkle in their eyes, and who are yet to invest in the very first piece of their yet-to-be-built collection. And the message is simple: seek sophistication and your collection will find you. You will get much further if you seek refinement by displaying good taste, wisdom, and subtlety, rather than crudeness, stupidity, and vulgarity, which comes from a mere acquisition and accumulation. If you allow yourself to be found by just one watch per year, so be it. And then one day, in the surprisingly not so distant future, you will look back with no regrets, wanting nothing, and having it all.