Lukas sat in the back of a dimly lit lounge, the air thick with the scent of expensive tobacco and the sound of clinking glasses. Across from him sat his mentor, Elena. On the table between them lay a small mountain of receipts—the physical remains of a "successful" weekend spent trying to look the part of a mogul.
"You see this?" Elena asked, waving a hand through a cloud of smoke. "This is what most people do with their breakthroughs. They turn them into fog." Lukas sat in the back of a dimly
Lukas looked at the receipts. She was right. He had been so focused on the feeling of being at the top that he’d forgotten the ladder was still shaky. "You see this
Lukas laughed, though it felt a bit tight. "Come on, it was a celebration. We worked hard for that commission." She was right
She told him about the 'Two-Hour Rule.' Every time he felt the urge to 'smoke' his earnings on something fleeting, he had to wait two hours and spend that time learning one new skill that would make his next paycheck easier to earn.
"The world is full of people who can blow through hundreds of euros in an afternoon," she said, standing up to leave. "But the world is run by the few who know how to turn that same amount into an engine. Stop being the fuel, Lukas. Start being the engineer."
"So, tell me how," Lukas said, his voice dropping. "Spune-mi cum (Tell me how) to stop the burn."