Choosing the Good Stuff

Yesterday one had the opportunity to attend a creative writing course at the local community center; the fee was reasonable, $ 60 dollars for a six week course, meeting every Wednesday from 7-8:30 pm. I had attended a similar course last year, I remember the class well; some new things were learned, met fellow struggling writers and had a chance to experience a writing seminar for the first time. The text book was based on the New York writing class, a well-regarded course that charges $ 400 dollars for a 10 week program; a class that seem to have more rigor and assignments. Despite my initial plan to attend the course at the community center, I had second thoughts and decided to stay home, eat dinner, watch 2 movies while working on my blog and planning for my trip. I had decided to attend the online writing course instead of the classes at the community center, deciding against meeting interesting people and perhaps some learning; instead focusing on the expensive option; likely getting more benefit from the seriousness and well planned curriculum. The mistake perhaps of going home first before going to class; a more deadly route than going to class directly from the office; allowing the allure of television, good food and the welcoming couch to create inertia and stop the propulsion forward; proving the notion that it’s difficult to move an object at rest.

Nevertheless, one believes it’s a good decision, deciding against the social motivation of attending the course at the community center; deciding also against the writing workshop at the local college this July; a workshop I attended last year which I found interesting for the social aspects, networking with would-be writers and meeting at an old college. One is attracted by the communal feature of public courses but one wonders if there is benefit for serious writers; doing the lonely grind of online courses with more work and assignments but more fruitful after one has done the rounds of the local writing circuit. Yes, one did that, done that. The initial idea was to learn on the cheap, but a year after the easy courses, no novel has been written and procrastinating reign supreme; so back to square one. So one must try a different tack, change the mix of activities, and alter the game plan. Continuing on the same road and expecting a different result is the perfect definition of insanity; the hard decision to stop one’s loses and go a different direction is difficult, but one must pay to get what one wants; paying more puts more skin in the game. It’s like buying cheap wine to satisfy one’s fill, but one gets tired of the cheap, one must go to the good stuff even if one has to pay more.

Networking

I spoke with the manager I will be meeting tomorrow afternoon to confirm our meeting. I need to be really on my toes this time around. No time for silly charm but a hard nose meeting. I always thought I could meet clients and allow my pleasant personality to keep things right. But it is more like snake-oil sales man approach in the past rather than a cold business like approach. It is now the real thing where everything must not be taken for granted. I should document everything and in case of any dispute, elevate the issue to the boss man for arbitration. It is a step up on the level of the game. Feels like customer management with teeth where the customers are sharks or live tigers that have the ability to eat you alive.

I patched things up with Philippe I think yesterday by talking to him and discussing his memo. I think he understands. I have to put attention on our business relationship. I spoke also to my development team supervisor on the phone to patch things up as well. I have to place some attention to them as well especially to her as she is the key person in the team. There is a lot of things that I need to put attention on especially since we have kick started the S project again. I have to make the team ready so they can handle the job. I only have a few weeks left, as the project should be up and running again by mid-April.

I am back in the mode of having to get a project up and running. The usual method of working with the proper protocol with the so-called delivery model is just not working. I think I can justify this by saying the project is not the usual one following the new delivery model since it is just a simple project. But I have to patch my relationship with the head of the offshore development company. We had a small run-in with him on another project we were doing with them. I guess this is really the ways things are in an organization. Working in a company is really the managing of the many business relationships and partnerships one have with the many actors in the game. It’s like a web or network of alliances in the organization to get things done.

Last night I attended a talk about wealth management strategy. The speaker is a millionaire who is the owner of the school who is offering the diploma. A good speaker who has a good persuasive ability to convince his audience. He is not as charismatic as other good speakers that I have seen and heard but his appeal only lies on his so-called ability to make money. This is the only point that the diploma course that he is promoting will do: to help you make a lot of money. Still a good way to spend a free evening to hear people like that talk as he mentioned a few interesting ideas such as investing in shop houses as office space not as residential homes. I am thinking of being a professional speaker one-day as a second career when things don’t turn out right at my office.