Looking back on this week, I am
unlikely to remember the magic in the air from the summer rains, the excitement
of some potential new prospects, budgeting for the next fiscal year, the
absolute joy of dinner with my friend Anton, Adam closing his first deal, the
beginnings of some hard core data analysis, getting giddily over-caffeinated
with the boys from Ruckus, meeting a digital loyalty guru, taking a sales call
from my CrossFit gym, taunting Joburg boy with photos of Cape Town, literally
flying through the 27 80kg back squats on Monday; or, on the less positive
side, the weakness I exhibited on Friday at the gym (turns out I was getting
sick) and the occurrence of a weird shoulder issue that probably just needs a
little bit of rest.
What I will remember? Stickers.
Well, that and coming out as a
fangirl.
Look, I think you can tell a lot
about a company by its employees. I think you can also tell a lot about a
company by how it handles criticism. Chalk and cheese, as they say. But I tell
you what, I was literally feeling like a seven-year-old girl getting obsessed
with stickers. Stickers!!
Thursday was a nutty day. Between
the whole Oscar Pistorius thing (he shot & killed his girlfriend, verdict
is definitely still out on what the hell happened here, but super sad for her
and her family), the State of the Nation address and opening of Parliament that
shut Cape Town right down, and my throwing my toys, as they say, at every
vendor in sight about these stickers … it was almost a tempest in a teapot.
I mean, I take my job
responsibilities very seriously, but some bits more than others. Fiduciary
responsibility and regulatory compliance are pretty well the top of the list.
Customers and staff come next.
Our new financial year starts on
March 1st. To prepare, we need to produce budgets and we also need
to change the financial reporting categories to fit my new view of the world. It’s
a bit mind-numbing to go over every single category for income and expense.
Definitely un-glamorous, but very necessary. I have a bit of an attention to
detail which can be annoying at times, but on balance is probably a good thing.
My love affair continues: no day or
week is like the last. Never boring. Just like CrossFit.
Speaking of CrossFit, I was
definitely having one of those head-over-heels in love moments on Monday when
we were doing heavy back squats. There’s that moment when you have just chalked
up and you watch the little bits of chalk dust fall through the air and you
know the bar is going to feel heavy, and light, at the same time. Just like
when you approach a new movement like a freestanding kipping handstand pushup
without fear or expectation, and somehow everything just goes right.
Love that. Like I love my
technicians make me laugh out loud almost every day of the week. Maybe THAT is
how I pick the vendors and partners and friends that I love; the ones that make
me laugh?
I was definitely thinking this week
about emotions, emotional reactions, and rationality. I know it may be
unrealistic, but I like to think of myself as being pretty calm, cool,
collected, and rational. I’m the one who keeps a calm head when everyone else
is panicking. I’m the one who, when the milk spills, goes to get something to
clean it up. My mother tells this story of when my brother was tiny and he
burned his hand and while she was still freaking out, I had already gone to the
sink and gotten a bowl of cold water for his hand. That sounds like something I
would do.
But I’ve also got this vindictive
streak. Do not hurt me or my people. I’ll give you every chance in the world,
but I draw the line at unethical and I really don’t care for stupid.
But here’s the thing. We know, now,
that I’m a salesman. Outside of the places I’ve worked, most of which I’ve sold
hard, at least for a time, there are a few things I rave about. TiVo. The
Economist. Sichuan Gourmet. CrossFit (although that one’s been tempered down
because it’s not right for everyone and there are some things about it that are
definitely pretty stupid). Cape Town.
I was chatting to this guy I met
recently, who is seeming to be like another J to me, in that it’s almost like
I’m talking to myself when I talk to him. It’s easy to get along with such
people, and I’m happily building networks of super smart, super insightful,
super connected people to be my friends and advisors in the industry. Yes I
know, you do need a diversity of opinions but you also need people on the same
wavelength. But I digress.
Anyway Lance was about as fascinated
by my coming out as a fangirl as I am. From my side, I am interested because it
doesn’t happen that often, and in this case I’m proud of it and embarrassed by
it at the same time. Fandom, by its very nature, is a bit irrational. But hey,
we’re all irrational and we’re all biased. At least I admit to mine, if only to
myself, and only the degree to which I’m actually self-aware. That’s a lot of
caveats, I know, but hey: just remember: people who live in glass houses
shouldn’t throw stones.
Here’s how it works: at the end of
the day, I try to be as professional as I can when it comes to customers. Their
needs come first. If some customer has a specific set of needs, I will bring to
them what I think is the best solution. But all else being equal, I’m going to
sell them the solution I like the best.
It all comes down to this, right? We
don’t buy from companies, we buy from people. Some products are so good you’ll
buy them even if you don’t much care for the company or the people.
So I’m a fangirl.
You know the other thing about fans?
They are the ones who are the most betrayed if you screw up. Irrationality and
emotion cuts both ways.
This post was too long so I broke it
into two. This one is more what I did, the second more how I felt. One last
thing to mention here is how utterly fascinated I remain by the human body. So
Saturday I wake up feeling a bit under the weather. I drive out to Stellenbosch
anyway to meet Riaan and go to the river, because I won’t be seeing him for
another month or so, and I wasn’t feeling THAT bad (cold, not flu). So now that
I’m up and about, I went to open gym. I wouldn’t have gone to that either except
that I was having a skill session with Grant (more about that in the next post,
too).
But then afterwards I raced off to
acupuncture. It was a bit of a shame because it looks like I missed some
gymnastics practice. I mean lifting heavy weights is cool, but what’s cooler is
watching people do backflips and cool stuff!
In case you’re not aware, I have
this therapist called Byron who does the most amazing things to help me heal
and reconfigure my body, and he does it all through stimulating the central
nervous system. I can, at this point, literally feel the CNS get fired up, and
it feels just like a cup of coffee or three, but when the body actually starts
processing what’s happened, I crash, and I crash hard. Normally I see him at
7am and by 6pm I am a bit of a wreck (Byron happens on recovery days,
obviously).
And we talk, and one of the things
we talk about is how I have the body awareness to be able to tell soreness pain
from injury pain from sensitivity at the attachment points. Similar to how with
the fascial release, not only do I have an apparently impressive pain
threshold, but I have a very good ability to tell the type of pain we’re
looking for (it’s a burning pain from the fascia getting unstuck from the
muscles) apart from the other type of pain.
So this acupuncture session was
fascinating to me because when I’m really needing acupuncture it knocks me
completely on my ass. I was drifting in and out of sleep, but I was
peripherally aware of what my body was doing, in phases. First, that weird
acupuncture sensation that if you’ve felt, you know what I mean, and if you
haven’t …. Well, try describing the flavour of a banana to someone who’s never
had a banana. Second, the CNS stimulation, and hard core at that. I’m glad I
was asleep or it might have been a bit intense, even for someone who is used to
it. Third, my right arm, the one with the shoulder issue, had a BIG involuntary
muscle contraction. Fourth, when it was time for the needles to come out the
CNS stimulation was gone and I woke up without a hint of drowsiness. But I had
to wait for a lecture on the transcendental soul to end before I had the
needles removed (Saturdays are TCM lecture days, so you can learn some
interesting things if you’re not snoozing).
We humans are like machines. Actually,
we are machines. Emotional machines, sure. But boy is it interesting to step
back and observe what is happening to your physical and emotional self.
Eve6 had it right: It’s sickening
how comforting the privacy of the mind can be.
- “The mind also had to be ready.” – Byron
- “That’s not really a fair fight.” – Bryony
- “Unfortunately the actual regulations are seemingly impossible to find.” – Dominic
- “So that’s gonna be rough. And then …” – Grant
- “I liked his eyes.” – Adam (not what it sounds like)
- “What’s the male equivalent of Hello Kitty?” – Ellie
- “It’s a spring. Your ass is like a spring.” – Coach Grant (not what it sounds like)
- “I don’t know what’s up with them.” “That guy is dodgy.” – Ellie & Rudolph (what else is new?)
- “I’ll save you the R2 it would take to call them. Just call Rob.” – Mike
- “You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.” “But you can.” – Ellie & Mike
- “Not that anyone from [company name omitted] has ever said anything REALLY stupid. But if you were to do so, I wouldn’t laugh in your face.” – Ellie
- “So much for NDA.” “Hehe. Yeah. So – “ – Ellie & Mike (NDA falls away if the idea is stupid and company goes under)
- “Naughty is such an unprofessional word.” – Rob
- “Don’t pick unnecessary fights.” – Doug
- “You’re becoming much more in demand from my side.” – Doug
- “You’re telling me my life is hectic?” – Ellie
- “You’re telling me there’s opportunity in my industry?” – Ellie
- “Oh my God Ellie …. They have you!” – Anton
- “OK let’s not kid ourselves. I can be unprofessional too.” – Ellie
- “You can’t have seven different income streams and no CEO.” – Anton
- “So it’s not just me going crazy over stickers?” – Ellie
- “I think we should affix Hello Kitty stickers to all our devices and see if anyone notices. …. I think I might be losing it a little bit.” “It is possible.” – Ellie & Rob
- “Just about every decision made by a human being in the history of the world was an emotional one.” – Rob
- “If I believe in you I’ll be selling you.” – Lance
- “Input. OMG.” – Dominic
- “The fact that you’re a fangirl piques my curiosity.” – Lance
- “That’s a lot of income, income, income all in one place.” – Bronwyn (it was actually three places)
- “Being vindictive and being hot are mutually exclusive.” – Lance (he meant not mutually exclusive)
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