His Money Didn't Help Him At All

I caught the papers traveling in the UK recently, and oh, God rest his soul, a banker/businessman, Hywel Jones, from North Wales was shot in the Bahamas. He was working in the Bahamas—that's where his office is—and was shot two times at close range when he came to work at 9:30 a.m. The article called it an “ambush”, and also referred to the method as “execution-style”.

Someone stepped out of the shadows while he was getting out of his car, and pow-pow! they go running towards the corner of the building, tearing off their clothes, and escape on a motorcycle.

You can't imagine the pandemonium, and of course the police know it was not a random act. But just a few days after it happened, they hadn't arrested anybody. Oh well, not everybody's as brilliant as the British and American police.

But at any rate, it's clear it was not a random act. Someone did it to him deliberately. And they mentioned he's what they call a wealthy ex-pat, and talked about the kind of holdings he has and the kind of positions he has. He is the former director of the Bankers’ Association of the Bahamas and the Bahamas Institute of Bankers.

He also ran a private investment firm. He was living the high life…and some thug, probably uneducated, shot him for an amount of money probably amounting to $1,500 or less. And the police probably won't catch him. He'll probably get away.

They might find out, if they do enough investigation, who caused the work to be done—but the man who actually pulled the trigger probably will never be caught.

The man who was shot is in critical condition, just clinging on by a bare thread to his life, and who knows what it'll be like when he comes back? If he comes back? I often say that money's not everything, and I do mean it. Now, I don't mean that money's not everything as the people who are making excuses do. What I mean is what becomes evident at a time like this.

For all this man's money, he couldn't stop what happened to him, and he may not survive. He might get good medical attention, but he was shot in the back of the head at close range twice, execution-style. He may pull through and live. He may not. It wasn't like he just broke an arm, or broke a leg.

And even if he does live, what are the chances that he will have a life of fulfillment, the life that he knew? It comes back to what we say so often—life is so uncertain. And even when you have money, that doesn't guarantee you that you'll get the chance to use it.

If he had known this thing was coming, if he had known someone was getting paid $1,500 to shoot him, he could've doubled the ante to $3,000 to avoid it, right?

This comes back again to the idea that you have to contribute, be ethical, live life to its fullest in the present moment. Carpe diem! – seize the day! Who know what tomorrow will bring? Who knows if you’ll even be here to enjoy it?!

I don't know if this businessman was feeling any intuitions when he went to work that day. You know, like the wife of Julius Caesar, who told him, "Beware the Ides of March"! She had a dream that this was going to be a fatal day for Julius. Yes, sure enough, he was assassinated with knives that day. Treacherous insiders…

I don't know if this man had any intuitions or not. Word is he had expressed concerns that his life was in danger to at least some close insiders. Whether he did or not, his money didn't do him any good to avoid that problem. If you want to get right down to it…now, I'm not a banker, but I know that they can do things that other people perceive as causing them problems, such as repossessing something…

Attorneys, especially divorce attorneys, judges, bankers—every now and then they get hit by someone who's unsatisfied. I don't know, of course, any of the details other than what I read in a newspaper.

But what I do know is, R.I.P., his money didn't help him at all.

P.S. Special note: Due to the lag time between the writing of an article and its publication, we now know the gentleman died after several days in a coma. The drama was just like on suspense TV – they stationed police inside and outside his door, in case someone was coming to finish the job. Case stands: his money didn’t help him at all.