By Noon, If Possible!

In his weekly column "Max's Column" for TBmagazine, Maxim Behar talks about the difficulties and changes in the Bulgarian economy and business and the only force that counts - experience.

I have many good friends, and one of them is the exceptional Sasho Morfov, a Bulgarian director and actor. His trademark are the words stating that people in Bulgaria want to get rich very quickly, if it’s possible, by noon today. Absolutely true!

The sudden fall of communism in just one afternoon over 30 years ago basically generated these expectations. Everything had to come quickly – democracy, the free market, competition, wealth, alignment with Europe, the lifting of visas, and free travel...

Well, it didn't happen in a day or two, but it did happen in about thirty years. Much faster than many people, including myself, expected, but also much slower than it could have. In fact, in the most challenging possible way , as I had predicted. The feeling from all this is that in Bulgaria, you can still wake up without money and be rich by noon.

And that's why we rush – we drive like crazy around the road, overtake and cut in, warn with our horns, park wherever we want, even in the middle of the streets, calm and nonchalant with our lights on... And we rush for this noon to come, to become rich, instead of sitting down and doing our work. We will learn that it will not happen this way. But maybe again, the hard way."