Rain, Rain Go Away...

It’s raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring...

I was woken up by a phone call this morning. A new friend called me. I met him last week when I broke the USB for my internet connection. He was referred to me by another friend I had made at the Starcomms office the week before.

Everywhere I find myself I try to make friends because the people you know often make life easier, especially in Nigeria. I cannot imagine what my day at Starcomms would have been like if I didn't know anyone there. If there is one thing I don't like doing, it is waiting. I can be very impatient. I don’t like to wait on queues especially when they are a result of a poor system. Anyway, I ended up not waiting and they fixed my usb in a few minutes for free. All this is because I made a friend the week before when I went to buy the usb. And as I left there I was making another friend with the guy who helped me fix it. I gave him my card and number and I took his number. He gladly told me to come and have it fixed anytime I had a problem.

Well, this week, I had a problem again when I paid for the internet subscription,so I called him again and I also called my previous contact there. They were both very helpful and the matter was resolved. Since then we have been talking quite a bit on the phone. So far, I think he is a smart guy and I don’t meet a lot of people who are versed in different subject matters, so that has really intrigued me and kept the conversations going. The other day he gave me an interesting analogy on how sometimes we need to look beyond the goal and focus on the process. I.e. often the process builds character and there are lessons learnt in the actual journey. For example if one focused on money without focusing on the means to make the money, you will find that character will not be built and the person does not really learn much because they never appreciated the process of achieving a goal. Anyway, I have thought about what he said and it did make a lot of sense to me so I am saving that piece of insight and pondering on it.

Yesterday I went to see my former colleagues in my 2 last jobs. I went to both offices. I needed to use a printer for a proposal I was submitting yesterday so I was able to get it printed and generally just chit chat with my friends at the same time.

I ended hanging out with my buddy, same one from last Friday, he was a former colleague from my previous job. We tried to see a movie but there wasn't anything good out there and the good stuff we had seen already. Also the timing was a bit late for me as the next movies were like 10pm,so I just chilled with him. We ended up going to a supermarket and buying bread, butter, crisp, mayonaise and ribena and just ate it at his house. He said he had tasted some bread and mayonaise in the morning and had been craving it ever since. The butter was for me I wasn't with him on the mayo thing. Not bad for a Friday night I guess.

We talked about different things, life, love, work etc. I have this belief that people who are very good in one area of their life often lack in the other. Let me explain. We were talking about star performers at work and colleagues that are really good at their jobs. I believe that apart form the passion you exhibit at work, the time you dedicate to your job determines what is important to you and if you are spending 12- 18 hours at work everyday then it seems like that is your focus and other areas of your life will suffer.

For example, I have a fantastic doctor; I have never met anyone like him before. In fact at one point I started thinking wow this guy is not bad at all. He may be in his 50s I guess. He is divorced with children. Every time I have a consultation he has something extra to offer me. Sometimes counselling, sometimes something he printed off the internet. He really takes time to explain things to me and answer all my questions. After the consultation he sees me off downstairs. And no it's not special treatment for me. He gives out his personal phone number to his clients so his phone is buzzing with their calls. In my opinion he is a wonderful doctor. I interpret his behaviour on the job to one of a very caring doctor. It makes me think of him as a very caring person too but am I right?

One day I asked him a direct question about getting back together with his wife because he said they maintained a cordial relationship. He replied that they couldn’t ever get back together because the reason why they split up is still there...work. In fact my guess is that he was a lousy husband. I put myself in his wife's shoes and realised that if I were married to him, I’d hardly see him, he's always be at work, when he wasn't at work his phone would be always buzzing with patient calls. He loves his work a lot and he is at what he does. In fact it would be very easy to misinterpret his work behaviour as who he was as a person. To his patients he is loving and caring but to his wife he was the opposite. What I am trying to say is sometimes I think when it’s great on one side then on another side it’s not so great. Passion doing something is one thing but time spent doing that thing is another. The place we invest our time is really where the heart and mind is. And we can’t be in more than one place at the same time so if we are at work till late most of the time then we cannot be with friends or family at the same time, unless you work for Google perhaps. I have fancied a guy who was great at work, he worked long hours and spent 7 days a week working but he was so detached with his emotions outside work. But if you judged him based on his behaviour at work, he was a great guy, but that was were his loving and feeling behaviour ended…at work. Passion at work is a wonderful thing,don't misunderstand me but long hours invested at work is a sure sign of other areas lacking in attention given. So what do you spend most of your time doing?

Today, I am not sure what I am doing. I am supposed to meet with a friend of mine to discuss some training we want to organise before the year runs out. My yesterday’s meeting with the client’s client didn’t go so great, it appears that they have outsourced the team building component of the conference to an American firm. So it appears that the work I was supposed to do is being handled by another firm and they just want me to help organise the people and logistics and materials required for the workshops. Hmmm, I will have to pass because that is not what I do, besides they can get someone in their team to do that for them and not have to pay them a dime. Unless they tell me something different from what I heard at yesterday’s meeting, it appears there isn’t really much for me to do anymore. So well, I guess yesterday’s proposal is what I will be praying about now…

It’s stopped raining. O yes, I remember I was invited to a party at 4pm today. Hmmm it supposed to be some ceremony of some sort of some big shot person but those kind of parties are really not my thing. I am not sure I will go, I rather just stay in good company and gist or even laze around.