I sold the Tour Eiffel
Let me make one thing clear: I sold the Eiffel Tower. Twice. I clearly never owned the Eiffel Tower, but I sold it anyway and I made somebody very happy, for a limited amount of time; but when is happiness ever forever Happiness is fleeting no matter where it comes from: happiness is what happens today before tomorrow’s worries or yesterday’s regrets. And it is beautiful.
I have been in this business for a long time and, let me tell you, I think I never, not once, made somebody believe something that they didn’t already want to believe in the first place. Call me romantic, but I like to think that the real purpose of my work is to make people’s dreams come true. Yes! When the work is hard, and the days are long, and you are wanted in several countries, it is important to remind yourself of why you are doing what you are doing. Acts of defiance are invigorating! They make me feel good. I measure my strength in the number of values I can do without.
Clearly, I am really good at what I do, and being good at something is never easy: people often dismiss my profession just because, you know... but it takes endless research, preparation, and tremendous focus to truly be someone else. Actors do it, they don't go to prison when they stop being successful at it. We do! And while some of my identities might not be real, the emotions I provide through them are as real as it gets. I make people feel important, kind, lucky, I give them the opportunity to be generous, I give meaning to their lives, I inspire them, I give them stories to tell. Yes, I lie sometimes! So what? Everyone does it! If we are lied to in advertising, we are fine with it, but if a small business owner like myself does it? Not you madame! I am treated like a criminal, like a thief, which is ridiculous! I never stole a single penny in my whole life. I would never steal. Stealing is easy! Creating a new reality that is so vivid that is indistinguishable from reality itself, that is the stuff great art is made of.
Some people get it, some people understand the value of illusions: your host tonight for example, he even paid to get me out of jail once. We met many years ago: I was already in New York, and I had just finished a machine that would duplicate money. Of my own creation, by the way! I could have been an engineer if I wanted to. Anyways, I was already in New York, and I was sitting in a hotel lobby looking for my next thing, when I see this man walking from the elevator to the bar. Sometimes it happens that I look at somebody and what they want is so clear that all I have to do is give it to them. He walked across the lobby from the elevator to the bar and I could see in his steps the discomfort of someone who doesn't walk a lot, he didn't have the smile nor the confusion of a tourist.