The Joy of Not Working In Istanbul

[Ernie Zelinski]

Photo: Ernie Zelinski and Nadide of Remax Turkey at the Istanbul Convention Center after his speech about The Joy of Not Working to the National Turkish Congress on Quality

All work and no play will make such a dull boy.

— Turkish proverb

The best desicion is a made one.
— Turkish Proverb

To believe a business impossible is the way to make it so.
— Turkish Proverb

Little did I know that when I got fired from my job as an Engineer over 28 years ago for taking too much time off work that the firing would lead to an all-paid trip to Istanbul plus a handsome speaking fee for talking for an hour about the philosophy in my book The Joy of Not Working. This trip is now on my top-3 list of most satisfying journeys that I have made in my life. With the Air Canada Premium Executive Class return airfare between Edmonton and London being $11,500 and the leg between London and Istanbul on British Airways being about $1,500, the National Turkish Society for Quality spent approximately $25,000 to have me in Istanbul to speak about The Joy of Not Working . As I have said many times before, there is still great opportunity during a recession.

The Top-Ten Highlights of My Trip to Istanbul

1. The Number 1 highlight of my trip was the number of important historic buildings such as the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque as well as variety of the non historic buildings such as the waterfront houses on the Bosphorus.
2. Meeting so many beautiful Turkish women was definitely the number 2 highlight. After making my speech about The Joy of Not Working to the National Turkish Society for Quality, a number of the women in the audience wanted to have their photos taken with me, and they were all beautiful. If anything will bring me back to Istanbul, it's the historic sights and the women — not necessarily in that order.
3. The joie de vivre in many parts of the city including the happening restaurants, bars, and clubs around town. One of my hosts treated me to dinner at Vogue, a new trendy restaurant that was full on a Tuesday night. We arrived at about 8:30 PM. It's a good thing that we had a reservation.
4. Taksim Square, which is a 5 minute walk from the Ritz Carlton Hotel where I stayed, gave me a true sense of the people living life in a neighborhood in Istanbul. The degree of energy in the square is definitely worth experiencing. Surrounding Taksim Square are numerous travel agencies, banks, restaurants, pubs, and even international fast food chains such as Pizza Hut, McDonald's and Burger King. There are several other grand hotels in the area including the InterContinental and The Marmara Hotel.
5. It was interesting going from the worst hotel room in London that I have ever stayed in (on Sunday night) to the Executive Suite at the Ritz-Carlton (corporate rate of $1,280 Canadian a night) with a view of the Bosphorus the next night (Monday night) that turned out to be the best hotel accommodation that I have ever had — and I have stayed in some pretty swanky hotels on my speaking travels.
6. Having a driver with a new car assigned to me for 3 whole days by the National Turkish Congress on Quality was a treat. The driver was available from early morning until midnight to drive me anywhere I wanted to go. (Not having spent one cent in Istanbul for 3 whole days due to the National Turkish Congress on Quality paying for all my meals and accommodations, I did give the driver a 100 Euro tip when he dropped me off at the Istanbul airport for my flight back to London.)
7. The great weather that I was lucky enough to get sure added to my Istanbul adventure. On Monday the high was 11 degrees Celsius, on Tuesday it was 17 degrees, and on Wednesday it was 21 degrees. Istanbul was much kinder to me than London where it rained and the temperature reached highs of about 5 degrees Celsius for my two days there.
8. Experiencing the traffic jams in Istanbul where rush hour starts at about 5 PM and lasts until 8:30 PM is an experience that puts the traffic problems in Canada in proper perspective. On the journey from a TV Station where I did a live interview about The Joy of Not Working, my driver told me that we had traveled 2 kilometers in an hour. It took us 2.5 hours to complete a journey from the TV station to the Vogue restaurant. Regardless of the destination, the same distance in my home town of Edmonton would take 20 to 25 minutes maximum in rush hour traffic.
9. Given that Istanbul has vehicles of all types and varieties — many more types and varieties than you will see in any city in Canada or even in London — one of the pleasurable experiences in my 3 whole days in Istanbul was not seeing one of the disgusting redneck-driven 4-wheel drive Quad cab pickup trucks that are so prevalent in Alberta and that so many sophisticated Albertans despise.
10. I never saw any fat people in Istanbul which just goes to show that there is no reason for so many Canadians and Americans to be grossly overweight. This also shows that their justifications for being overweight are false excuses and silly fabrications to cover up the fact that they are pigs when it comes to food and lazy when it comes to exercise. Incidentally, I thought that I may gain weight on this trip due to the many fine meals that I ate but I actually lost 2 or 3 pounds due to all the walking that I did in Istanbul and London.

Above all, the number of things to see in Istanbul is amazing. Trust me on this one: Anyone can easily spend two weeks in this city without running out of interesting things to see.
Now back to working on my new e-book 101 Reasons to Love a Recession, my new website The Money Cafe:

and marketing my International Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free

Here are a few more Turkish proverbs, two of which I used in my speech:

A cup of coffee commits one to forty years of friendship.

— Turkish proverb

If God closes one door, He opens a thousand others.
— Turkish proverb

There is no right way to do a wrong thing.
— Turkish Proverb

Activity breeds prosperity.
— Turkish proverb

Do what your teacher says but not what he does.
— Turkish proverb

If God closes one door, He opens a thousand others.
— Turkish proverb

To the mad every day is a holiday.
— Turkish proverb

If time is not favourable to thee, render theyself favourable to it.
— Turkish proverb

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