Words vs Numbers

The Words , who had gathered to discuss the issue at hand, were clearly flustered.

"Discombobulated, unsettled, unnerved, agitated, ruffled, upset, bothered,  disquieted, disturbed, perturbed, disconcerted, confused, thrown off " is how Thesaurus put it.

Among the Words gathered were prominent Word luminaries such as  Action, Strategy, Thoughtful, Biography, Explanation and Analogy.

"It is ridiculous" said Exclamation.

"It is preposterous" said Emphasis.

"It is unthinkable" said Enunciate.

"We should do something about it" said Action.

"Like what?" said Curious. "With her making the career switch to a Commissions Analyst, what could we possibly do?”

  

 "Of all the things she could have chosen to become…a Commissions Analyst!" exclaimed Judgment…."a Commissions Analyst!"

"There should be a law against Copywriters becoming Commissions Analysts" said Legal.

"How can you go from working in so many different ad agencies...and writing the Fiesta campaign...and starting Purple Patch...to crunching numbers?" said Biography, shaking her head.

  

"A rhetorical question" said Rhetoric.

"Calculating commissions? Sounds as dull as ditchwater to me" said Analogy.

"Apparently not to her" said Explanation.

"What on earth do Commission Analysts do?" said Clueless.

"I will have to write it out, but be warned.  Even when I do, it will make no sense to you" said Explanation.

Explanation strode to the whiteboard and wrote, "60000/500000 x 0.03"on the whiteboard.

The Words looked at what Explanation had written, open mouthed.

"Wow, don't understand it.  And don't understand what she sees in it" said Incredulous.

"What does it even mean?" said Clueless.

"Sales divided by Quota multiplied by rate.  It's a commission calculation".

"She stares at screens full of this the whole day" continued Explanation.

"We need to come up with a plan" said Strategy. "The goal is to get Minoo back into words.  I want us all to put on our thinking hats.  Let's meet again in a week with ideas.

And so they met again.

At that next and crucial meeting, some of the Words looked more excited than others.

They had the look of those who have ideas they can't wait to share.

"I have just the thing" said Eager, "Let's have Minoo kidnapped and taken back to India. Someone from her advertising past in India will be sure to offer her a job, and she will be back to being a words practitioner again."

The idea fell flat. Eager looked dejected.

  

"I know, I know" said Devious, "Let's have Minoo make mistakes in her work as a Commissions Analyst. Then she will have to come up with creative ways of explaining the mistakes. She will have to use words to do that."

  

All the other Words glared at Devious for this inappropriate suggestion.

"I was only joking" said Devious.

  

All the Words then turned and looked at Thoughtful.  Everyone knew Thoughtful would have an idea.

"I was thinking" said Thoughtful, "What Minoo needs is a creative pause.  A creative pause will spur her creativity.   I am willing to bet if Minoo has a creative pause, she will automatically start writing again."

"But how would we engineer a creative pause?" said Practical.

  

"I know, I know" said Devious, "You know how Minoo loves her telecommuting?"

"Yes," said the other Words…

"Well," said Devious, "If a boss got in the way of that, Minoo is likely to leave her job."

"And that will produce the creative pause …yes I love it"said Thoughtful.

  

The other Words who respected anything Thoughtful said, nodded their heads in agreement, shaking their heads Indian style. Meanwhile, Devious was as pleased as punch.  Known for joking around, he couldn't believe he had come up with the winning idea.

  

And so the Words put their heads together.

They plotted on planting  ideas in the ear of the boss of Minoo's direct boss - ideas that were in direct contradiction to what Minoo would like to hear.

As to why it had to be the boss of Minoo's boss, and not Minoo's boss, it was because Minoo's boss was deemed too kind to cause any inconvenience and trouble for Minoo.

  

The idea the Words put in the head of the boss of Minoo's boss  (and it was while he was sleeping), was that he should ask Minoo to account for every hour she spent working from home, and to also question her current system for calculating commissions.

  

And things went exactly as the Words expected.

  

The boss of Minoo's boss asked her to account for every hour of the time she spent working from home.

He also started questioning how she did her commission calculations, even though she was using a system she had refined over the years, and which was working fine.

This did not sit well with Minoo, and she was rattled.

  

She exchanged words with him again and again.

Eventually, tired of exchanging words, actually tired of the psychological demands of dealing with the boss of her boss, one Monday, Minoo did not show up for work.

  

Shortly after, she announced her resignation.  

The Words couldn't have been happier.

They high fived each other.

According to Thoughtful, it was now just a question of time before the creative pause bore fruit.

And that's exactly what happened.

By walking out of her job, Minoo gave herself a well-deserved creative pause.

And this creative pause soon spurred Minoo's creativity.

  

Before 6 months was out, she started a blog, and began to write and post online.

She wrote posts about losing weight, she wrote posts about buying cars, she wrote posts about starting businesses, she wrote posts about doing taxes, she wrote posts about being unique, she wrote posts about being a virtual worker, she wrote and wrote and wrote.

She even wrote a Valentine's Day post about Cupid getting his groove back.

  

The Words were ecstatic.

And guess what…the Numbers were happy too.

  

Because even after Minoo decided to become a Commission Administration Consultant, and her numbers work resumed, she found she was still able to write on weekends.

And she is doing that even today.

All’s well that ends well.

  

And now you know the genesis of this blog.

P.S. Since Valentine’s Day is around the corner, I will end this post with words and numbers of advice…

On Valentine's Day, don't forget to show them whose #1 in your life – them, not you. 

P.S. 2: Don’t forget to read my old Valentine’s Day post, which I hope will remain evergreen for some, if not all of you readers.😄