February 26, 2010
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The Motivation Factor
Before he fired me, my previous boss would try to motivate all staff at the monthly meetings by going on for a couple of hours about how good our products are, what the future of LED lighting is, how much better than GE, Osram and Philips the company was (despite the fact that Philips sells more in a minute than they did in a year) and that everyone should work harder. Of course, not that there would be any rewards, and certainly no thanks for giving up 75% of the day and 50% of the weekend as well. I would leave those meetings deflated, demotivated, and ready to pack it all in. Thankfully before I could find the right vein to slice open with a blunt knife my agony was spared by being canned.
Somehow he did not work out that perhaps motivation was coupled with incentives. Not the “you work hard and you can keep your job” type of incentive, but more along the lines of CASH MONEY or even time off. However, seeing that the guy has never actually worked for a living, having been bankrolled all through his life, his EQ and inter-personal skills levels are right down there with the lowest of the low. As Etienne this week pointed out to me, the only reason I took the job in the first place was because El Pres was stupid enough to offer me huge amounts of money to get me out of debt. Do I have an issue with no longer being in employment? Nope – as far as I am concerned, it’s mission accomplished.
In the last few weeks, since fully recovering from the double hernia operation, I have been exercising more – even made it to football training for the first time in 11 months. Despite playing some football, I have not been to training because I have been busy setting up other things, but I have been biking. Initially I did a couple of smaller climbs, just 250 metres up from my home town in to Linkou. I managed it very slowly, but without needing a break, and so I decided to try the mountain closest to my home – Guanyin shan.
Up I climbed, again slower than perhaps a year ago, but that should be no surprise to anyone. First I headed out towards Bali Port, and then turned left on to the mountain road. There were a couple of people fishing in a pond, the water black and dark, no fish in sight. A little further on – perhaps no more than 300 metres – there is another pond there, where the waters are clear, and the fish in abundance. I was not going to tell the fishermen – the fishes’ secret was safe with me!
Still not needing a break, I made it to the top, and cruised down the other side. It was a good ride, and so a couple of days later, I tried the tougher side – where I saw an Eastern Marsh Harrier sitting on the top of a tree, just scanning the world around it. It was stunning – looked as though it had just eaten. I wished I had taken my camera with me, but instead had to settle for my own admiration of this stunning bird.
As I reached the summit I could hear the music of the local KTV, karaoke bar, and approaching slowly I could hear just how bad it was. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was the worst cacophony I have ever heard. One old man and one old woman singing together. When I say together, it can not be guaranteed that they were actually singing the same song. There are some who say that I am a great singer – I get all the right notes. Just perhaps not in the right order. But these two, I honestly believe, weren’t even getting the right notes at all. Not one between them.
This was all the motivation I needed to get peddling harder and faster to reach the summit, and cruise down the other side, away from the noise, away from the destruction my ears had suffered. Perhaps that is an idea for El Pres’ next monthly meeting. If you don’t work harder, I’ll bring the KTV twins in for a singalong!
