Years ago, I knew a man who was assigned to Saudi Arabia as a military liaison officer. He decided that one way that he would maintain his morale during that time away from his family by devoting his off-duty time to learning how to play the piano. At the end of a year, he could play the piano.
His duty was hardly a hardship assignment but it came to mind the other day when I saw a report of an organization that was recruiting employees for a remote location in Alaska. The town was more of a village, the scenery was dismal, the houses were on stilts due to the permafrost, and, of course, much of the year saw little if any of the sun.
It takes a special person to maintain a positive attitude in a place like that. I have no doubt that some people can but I'm equally convinced that many more would be searching for an escape route within a couple of weeks.
But would the money make a difference? If you knew that you could bank $100,000 by working a year in a thoroughly unpleasant location, could you muster the mental stamina to do so if the sole incentive was financial?
And at the end of the time, would you look back at it as a net gain or a net loss?
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