By the time you finish this article, you will be able to learn how you can tell if the years to come are good or bad for you, and how long this season will last, so that you can act on it – if there is a storm on the horizon, you will take refuge in the time, if sunny days are coming, you will take advantage before the opportunity passes, so that you can succeed in life.
However, before that, we first have to see what lessons are derived from the life of the Greek magnate Aristotle Onassis, how the alternations of his life go from good to bad and vice versa radically influenced his successful career. Onassis began his career as a point guard in 1933, while the Great Depression of 1929 was not over yet. Due to the crisis, the prices of the boats had fallen dramatically. A ten-year freighter, which had cost $ 1 million to build in 1920, could now be had for $ 20,000. Onassis discovered that a full fleet of ten of these ships were for sale in Saint Lawrence, Canada. He immediately bought six of those boats for $ 20,000 each. And a few years later, he vastly expanded his fleet: he obtained a $ 40 million loan in 1947 from various American banks and built 18 more ships, including tankers.
But in 1954 he did something that brought him to the brink of destruction. After a series of negotiations, he reached an agreement with the king of Saudi Arabia that would grant him exclusive rights to use his tankers to transport that country’s huge oil production. However, as soon as the deal became known, a storm of protests against Onassis broke out, not only from the big American oil companies, which had the exclusive right to produce Saudi Arabia’s oil, but also from the United States government. States themselves.
The oil companies officially protested to Saudi Arabia, and simultaneously made it clear to Onassis that every time their ships arrived at the ports of that country to load crude, they would not let him have it. US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles has warned the Saudis that if they insist on maintaining the agreement with Onassis, US oil companies will stop oil production in that country. Faced with this reaction, the king of Saudi Arabia was forced to cancel the agreement.
At the same time, the American oil companies decided, out of revenge, to cut off any cooperation with Onassis. Every time a charter contract expired for any of their ships, they did not renew it and handed it over to other ship owners. By the end of 1955, half of the Onassis tanker fleet was idle. His main source of income was running out at tremendous speed. That situation continued in 1956 as well. More and more of his ships were idle, and those ships were mortgaged with the huge loans he had borrowed to build them. But Onassis no longer had enough income to pay off the loans. Desperate, he turned to the American banks he was in debt to and asked them to take over the management of his ships. The international shipping community expected him to announce bankruptcy at any moment.
However, that bankruptcy never happened. A new season began in Onassis’s life. In October 1956, the Suez Canal closed to shipping due to the crisis between Egypt and Israel. As a result, the ships had to circumnavigate Africa, adding considerable time to each voyage. There were very few ships available to meet the demand and freight costs soared to unprecedented levels in 1957. The only ship owner who had ships available was Onassis. Due to the boycott imposed on him by the American oil companies, he had a large number of ships standing idle in various ports. The results were predictable. The Onassis ships were chartered by desperate merchants, the boycott ended, and bitter relations with the oil companies were forgotten.
Instead of destruction, triumph had come. Onassis began to make dizzying profits: in 1957 alone, he made $ 70 million, whereas ten years earlier, he had been in debt on the $ 40 million loan he had obtained. The earnings were incredible. Onassis didn’t know what to do with all that money. His first act was to pay back all the loans he owed.
His second act was to commission the construction of new ships, including a 100,000-ton tanker, the largest in the world at the time. His third act was giving a resplendent reception in Monte Carlo to celebrate his best luck. And after a few years, Onassis became the richest person in the world.
In 1973, however, Onassis’s brilliant season would end abruptly. Which followed a tragic season, the last of Onassis’s life. In January 1973, Onassis’s son Alexander died in a plane crash at the Athens airport at the age of 19. Onassis proved early on that he overcame that event. Immediately after his son’s funeral and burial on his private island Skorpios, he began to expand his fleet. Although the fleet then consisted of more than 100 ships – including 15 super tankers of 200,000 tons each – Onassis commissioned the construction of six more tankers, two of them of 400,000 tons each, the largest tankers in the world.
But starting in 1974, things started to get worse. Perhaps because of the death of his son, in 1974 he began to suffer from myasthenia gravis, an incurable disease that affects the eyes and other parts of the body. I couldn’t keep my eyelids open and had to do it with duct tape. She also had trouble swallowing food and slurred her words when she spoke. Unsurprisingly, he was full of complaints: about his life, about himself, about his marriage, most of all.
The next year – 1975 – was the last in Onassis’ life: he became seriously ill with pneumonia. In terrible condition, he was admitted to a hospital in Paris, where he underwent surgery to no avail. On March 15, 1975, the richest man in the world died, at the age of 69. Only his daughter Christina was by his bedside.
conclusion
It follows from the life of Onassis that in 1957, the bad season that he lived until that year (he faced bankruptcy, as it is remembered) suddenly ended, and a good season began for him, when the Suez Canal closed to maritime transport and he began to become the richest person on earth. But in 1974, a change of seasons happened in his life: his good season ended that year and a bad one began, when his beloved son Alexander died in a plane crash, and Onassis began to suffer from myasthenia gravis which eventually led to his death.
However, resembling the alternations of seasons is also derived from the biographies of many other famous people that I have studied. Among them are the biographies of Napoleon, Beethoven, Verdi, Churchill, Picasso, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth Taylor, Margaret Thatcher, Columbus, Mandela and many others, more than 20 biographies in all.
For instance:
— Beethoven’s good and bad seasons alternated in 1776, 1792, 1809 and 1825
— Napoleon altered in 1776, 1792 and 1809
— Churchill was altered in 1875, 1892, 1908, 1924 and 1941
— Verdi altered in 1825, 1842, 1859, 1875 and 1892
— Picasso altered in 1892, 1908, 1925, 1941 and 1957
— Jackie Kennedy Onassis altered in 1941, 1957, 1974 and 1990
— Elizabeth Taylor was altered in 1941, 1958, 1975 and 1990
— Margaret Thatcher alternated in 1941, 1957, 1975 and 1990
— Mandela altered in 1941, 1957, 1974 and 1990
— Queen Elizabeth I of England alternated in 1545, 1562, 1578 and 1595
— Columbus altered in 1479 and 1496.
Comparing these biographies, I came to an amazing discovery: the stations of all the mentioned people alternated according to a certain pattern. Also, after extensive research, I discovered that the seasons of our own lives alternate according to the same pattern. That means, therefore, that we can foresee how the good and bad seasons of our life will alternate in the future, with astonishing precision.
So, we can act accordingly. If there is a storm on the horizon, we can take shelter in time. If sunny days are coming, we can take advantage before the opportunity passes. Therefore, we can have great success in life by making crucial decisions regarding our career, marriage, family, relationships, and all other problems in life.