If you are the head of Greece's investment promotion agency, you probably do need a sense of humour.
"The problem is not that it is the worst job in the world, the problem is that it is the worst paid job in the world," Aristomenis Syngros, the chairman of Invest In Greece, the department responsible for bringing foreign capital into the country, joked in an interview with The Huffington Post UK.
Greece, in case anyone had forgotten, has an almost impossibly unsustainable level of debt and is entering its fourth year of recession. The country's banks are perilously short of capital, the government itself has been propped up by a combination of bond buying from the European Central Bank (ECB) and a bailout programme from the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
A quarter of the country's deposits have gone overseas - and some analysts say the surprising thing is that the rest are still there.
Beyond that, few people seem entirely convinced that Greece can stay within the European single currency, as the external pressure for reform comes up against the domestic political necessity to maintain standards of living and social equality.
Syngros is unequivocal: "Greece will remain in the euro," he said, repeating it for emphasis.
"Greece will remain in the euro. There is not an alternative."
"The people in Greece want the euro. The huge majority, more than 80% want the euro. It's the only alternative. We do not have pressure in Greece to leave the euro. Greece will stay in the euro, nobody who is serious will discuss anything else. The business community is 100% behind the euro."
Changing the perception of the country is going to be a long slog, after more than two years of daily coverage.
"You [in the media] collect information and I have to suffer," Syngros said, perhaps only half jokingly.
"We live in a free world and everybody is free to write and say his opinion. But if we are serious, and I believe that most of the people are serious, then they know that the euro is the only option for Greece, for Europe and also for the world economy."
The country's physical assets are undiminished - hot summers, crystal blue seas and volcanic islands for tourists, a strategically vital location on the Mediterranean and developed port infrastructure for the shipping and energy industries.
Some have even suggested that the country's summer sun could be used to generate electricity for its Northern European neighbours - although Syngros did complain that the current wet weather in Athens is making it more like London.
However, the problem, he said, is simply liquidity.
Investors in Greek companies have bemoaned the fact that even profit-making, solid businesses in previously safe sectors have found it impossible to get credit for working capital or investment. Others are seeing their supply chains collapse. The same problem, on a Europe-wide scale, has held investment back.
That investment is vital if the country is going to pay back its debts, Syngros said. Austerity is only one half of the equation - if the economy continues to contract, the cuts will only have to get deeper and deeper.
"The two things should be parallel. The one thing is the austerity measures, and we have to take the austerity measures. But without growth, without investment, the austerity measures have no sense. We need growth. Not only Greece, but other countries. This is what moves society ahead."
Syngros, like so many others in Southern Europe, is compelled to wait for some kind of resolution on a transnational scale - the country has begun reforms to its investment and property laws in an attempt to make the process easier for international companies.
Visits to North America and to Asia have been fruitful, he said, with banks and potential investors clearly showing interest. The agency has 20 big projects in the pipeline.
However, with big uncertainties hanging over the entire eurozone, the money is being held in reserve. The decision by the ECB earlier in the week to release nearly €500bn in cheap loans to eurozone banks is a "good signal to the markets," Syngros said. "This is a light at the end of the tunnel."
"A crisis creates opportunities. Opportunities mean growth. But these things need fuel, and the fuel is the liquidity,"
Markets are shutting down for the holiday season, and the longer term effects of that ECB programme may only become clear in the New Year. Syngros is staying hopeful.
"This is Christmas, everybody gets wishes. Santa Claus comes in Greece on the 1st of January," he said. "I'm optimistic."