Preface
This series was created in order to show how far difficulties and failures in life can lead us, what we can face if we lose heart, in what risky and dangerous situations we can find ourselves, in what stories with an unpredictable outcome we can get into. This story is put together to show that people will always strive for the best, no matter which path they choose. They will always strive to rise, surface and move on. Yes, in search of the right path, they will find themselves in difficult situations, and sometimes, finding themselves at a dead end, they will have to interact with people who cannot be completely trusted, including suspicious or even dangerous. In their desperation, people tend to believe in sweet fairy tales about a bright future, about incredible offers and unexpected successes. In such difficult periods, they tend to trust even people they don’t know at all, naively expecting that these people will become their saviors. Often this naivety leads to even more difficult situations, to even more unpleasant consequences, which further deplete their strength. Their desire to fight in life begins to weaken, but hope still remains. Their unrealized dreams are buried somewhere deep. Many people do not despair completely, but simply carry the pain in their hearts. They return to their gray daily life, go to their disgusting work. But they don’t give up. They keep trying to find the right way and achieve results and success. These people have achieved a lot, graduated from school and university with honors or, at least, with high grades, received a lot of praise at work, were promoted, of course, they received criticism and dismissals, they also had failures, like any normal person. Yes, at some point, negativity can begin to dominate someone’s life.At the same time, he wants to achieve something more in life, to achieve higher positions at work and in society, to please his loved ones with his successes, he wants to prevail over his critics and generally be more successful and happier. A person can be very ambitious and purposeful, and also have a great desire to achieve high goals, to become a successful person. He can invest a lot of time and effort in his endeavors, try to make his dreams come true. But it doesn’t always work. Often things don’t go the way we want, but in a completely different way. A long streak of failures can seriously disturb and depress a person. It can make him less smiling and cheerful, and more thoughtful and unhappy. And when it goes on for a relatively long time, it becomes complicated. A person can start hoping for unexpected luck, an unprecedented surprise and a turning point in his life, without doing anything special. He can hope that circumstances will change someday and everything will work out by itself. Or that he will meet his savior. The role of such saviors can often be played by people who like to profit from the life problems of ordinary people and their naivety and despair, various scoundrels, scammers and criminals who offer unrealistic and impracticable things. Thus, the cycle in which a person’s life can consist mainly of difficulties and negative emotions can repeat, and more than once. This can lead him to despair. It is very bad when there is not even a breath of fresh air in life, nothing interesting can be seen on the horizon that could please him and inspire hope, nothing can be seen that could awaken him to a new life. And such a turning point can still come, and it can come quite unexpectedly and be associated with circumstances that are completely beyond his control. Suddenly, interesting people may appear in someone’s life. Whether these will be the very people we need, we don’t know yet. But they can offer even more than we expect if we agree to change our lives and go a different way. We will be brought back to life, and we will again be ambitious, purposeful, combat-ready and happy as never before. We have a curious way to go. We will face adversity and adventure again, but we will have wings. The choice of what to do and what steps to take is up to us. Things may already be going better than expected, but we always have to be careful what we do. We can fight for success and good goals, but we must be careful with methods and means. Yes, at some point we may find ourselves on the side of successful people and leave the past behind. But we are still human, we must not forget about the human in us…
Introduction
In the “Crafted World” series, we will witness a large-scale struggle for supremacy and power, we will witness a clash between various alternatives for the development of a world in which ordinary people may at first seem like small pawns in a big game. They will have to cope with life’s difficulties on their own and look for a way to success. Many of them will not be able to find the right path, will face difficulties and will become desperate. They won’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. As if nothing can save them. They will continue to work in their disgusting, stressful, low-paid jobs, live their boring lives and blame themselves and others for their misfortunes. They will suffer from grief and poverty. They will envy the rich and successful and wonder why they fail to realize themselves well, fail to achieve their goals, fail to realize their dreams. They will wonder why other people have everything and they have almost nothing. They will compare themselves with others and secretly wonder why they are worse than others. They will ask themselves what they are wrong about. They also studied well, didn’t they also work, didn’t they also strive to succeed? They also try very hard and start a large number of undertakings. They will often wonder why their life is so complicated, unhappy and filled with negative emotions. Why don’t other people understand their problems, why are they treated so coldly everywhere? Why do so many evil people make evil comments, trying to make them look like losers? Why are there so many people who rise without having any special qualities? Why are there so many people who can only flatter the powerful, lie, slander others and maintain a loving relationship with their superiors, but at the same time climb the career ladder relatively quickly? While the main characters of the series are smart, ambitious, hardworking, proactive and really think they have the qualities necessary for success. A significant number of successful people also have the same qualities. But our heroes have not been able to succeed for a long time. Despite the stereotype that if you are smart enough, ambitious, hardworking and proactive, you will definitely become successful. Failure and poverty suppress their self-esteem, their will to live. They begin to lose confidence in themselves, their qualities and abilities. They lose their tone and desire for development, eventually reaching despair and timelessness. They begin to hope that everything just comes from somewhere. But it is unknown from where. Or they hope that everything will happen by itself. They begin to trust questionable people and follow questionable practices that bring them more problems instead of success. These people are sinking more and more financially and psychologically.
And as we know, unexpected surprises often happen in life. While there is absolutely no hope for improvement on the horizon, a mysterious man named Richard (Rich) suddenly appears in the lives of the main characters. Rich looks like a successful middle-aged man running a solid business. Rich says that he can offer them development options if they are sufficiently restrained and loyal. At first they suspect that he is just another fraudster who just wants to make more money from suffering and desperate people. But, surprisingly, it later turns out that Rich is actually a member of a very powerful secret community that seeks to create, offer and develop an alternative to the current world order. People call this community the “Sky Club” because they hold their secret meetings high in the mountains or on the upper floors of skyscrapers, away from the eyes of ordinary people. Another unofficial name for them is “Artisans”, because they love original handmade products, and also like to receive and give original handmade gifts. Their love of original things becomes an important part of their strategy to gain more power and influence in the world. They encourage people to create original products and have an original way of looking at things. In their opinion, every person and every business should have its own unique style and its own unique face that distinguish them from the rest. In order for there to be more happiness in the world, it is necessary to create, sell and distribute more unique things. People should not create and produce only identical or similar products. The Sky Club idolizes talented people and relies on human ingenuity, on the desire of each person, team, group or organization to create their own unique style with which they can stand out from the rest. It welcomes diligence and hard work, it welcomes the desire to learn and practice, it encourages the creation and implementation of innovations. This secret community seeks to change the world by offering more opportunities for development and more opportunities for interaction and mutual assistance between people, seeks to change people’s way of thinking, change their value system and at the same time gain even more influence, power and money. Their concept of changing the world order is based on the idea that people have the opportunity to unite in interest groups and on certain common grounds, creating mutual aid organizations that interact with each other. For example, people who share the same values and ideas about life should be able to join groups or clubs and create mutual aid organizations that interact with mutual aid organizations of other groups and clubs. These organizations should have their own budget and be able to provide grants and loans to their members and other organizations. The money should be collected at the expense of membership fees, which are not fixed, but in accordance with the capabilities of different people, and thus a budget and a reserve fund should be formed. The rich should be able to bring in more, the poor less. Financial control should be strict, and all participants should participate in voting and make decisions about what to spend money on. According to Sky Club members, mutual assistance is expressed not only in money, but also in providing opportunities, guidance, advice, a good attitude, as well as in the development of good and mutually beneficial relationships. Sky Club members strive to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to get help in case of difficulties, and not be left to fend for themselves alone. The members of the club are convinced that if a person is sure that he has someone to turn to for help in a difficult moment, he feels more secure in life in general and more confident in the future. They develop curious secret methods to achieve their goals. They work extremely carefully on their ideas about life and the new world order and inspire their followers to work together with them, to enter into the role of craftsmen who create every detail of the new world with great care. At the same time, according to Sky Club members, the official state should not stop functioning, legislate and collect taxes, but it should work better. In their opinion, the creation of mutual aid organizations does not weaken the state, but complements it. Groups, clubs and mutual aid organizations can solve problems that are beyond the power of the state. This way, people would have more opportunities to discuss and solve problems. It would be easier for them to find common ground if there were things that unite them, or they united around ideas that they like. The Sky Club community has powerful tools, lobbies and mass media, but it promotes its ideas unnoticed, without coming into direct conflict with rulers and governments around the world. Many members of the secret community are truly convinced of their rightness and sincerely want to help people and create more opportunities for them. In their opinion, there are too many people in the world who are under the pressure of poverty and lack of sufficient opportunities for development. Sometimes difficulties and failures lead these people to despair and deadlock. They don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. Their life is hard, hopeless and unhappy. Everyday life is gray and unpleasant. Hard and unpleasant work and lack of prospects exhaust them physically and mentally. And the appearance of people like Rich is an unexpected surprise for them, a ray of light and a breath of fresh air in their lives. Rich gives hope to these people, awakens them to a new life and new adventures. A new path of development looms on the horizon. Interaction, mutual understanding and mutual assistance between members of the organization and people in general are put in the first place. Many people are starting to believe in the ideas of the Sky Club community. Over time, the secret fans and followers of the Sky Club community will increase significantly, its strength and capabilities will increase. However, many of the followers are not perfect at all and often act on the verge of the law, which leads to conflicts with official authorities. The community is gradually turning into an empire, which is a real challenge for governments around the world…During this time, some characters who were previously desperate and unhurried find themselves on the crest of a wave, becoming leaders capable of coping with any challenge. It’s just that the methods and means that different characters use to achieve their goals and common goals are very different. Between the followers of the “Sky Club” (“Artisans”) quarrels and conflicts begin. An important challenge for many of them is to preserve humanity in themselves and treat others with understanding. There are also unscrupulous people who create disagreements in the community and among its followers. As often happens in life, common goals and ideas aimed at the common good are overshadowed by personal ambitions and spoiled by greedy people and the struggle for power. Subsequently, the organization “Global Forum of Mutual Assistance”, created by the secret community “Sky Club” (Artisans) splits into two large groups or factions, between which an insurmountable conflict breaks out. It is incredible to what extent people who recently sat at the same table and shared common ideas will hate each other. It is incredible how persistently they will try to harm each other and seize more power. A protracted media conflict will begin, during which the leaders of the two groups will constantly try to denigrate each other. Media and hacker attacks will begin, exposing abuses and personal ambitions of leaders. Attacks on the media supporting opposing ideas will include hacker attacks aimed at changing their program. Tactics will be widely used in which media outlets supporting opposing ideas will be hacked to change their logo in prime time and broadcast completely different programs, shows or versions. After a hacker attack, they will often broadcast programs and shows that look like real ones, but which tell about other things and versions, about other scenarios. For example, it will become very popular to add such additions as “Nice”, “True Story” and others to the official logo of a particular media outlet, as well as to broadcast shows and news programs similar to real ones, but with different versions and facts, often completely opposite to those that are broadcast systematically, without a hacker attack. Over time, the conflict subsides, the structures of the “Sky Club” begin to weaken and finally disappear and sink into oblivion. The “Sky Club” or so-called “Artisans” disappear as quickly as they appear. With them goes the utopian idea of a better life, which is based on idealism and devotion of people and opposes human imperfection, as well as underestimates it, which ultimately led to the failure of the organization and the collapse of its ideas. The truth is that their ideas were neither the best, nor, on the other hand, the most utopian and unworkable. In order for these ideas to work, or to test whether they could work, very good organization and very precise execution were required, without mistakes, intrigues, conflicts and abuses. At first, people liked these ideas to some extent, although many of them doubted their sincerity. Everything looked good at first: ambitious and charming leaders, concerned about the future of humanity, with ideas, open to dialogue and ready to listen to everyone. But the departure of capable leaders, as well as the conflicts and power struggles that followed, eventually alienated the people and fans of the community and led to the collapse of the community. After all this and after all these emotions, it was quiet, almost no one remembered or talked about them.
Author: Anton S. Petrov
This series of short stories was created and performed in a new format of short stories called “Exciting Flight”. Learn more about the amazing “Exciting Flight” format here:
