Stale-mate or Work-in-progress?

The work has not been going right for me. I sense a lull in flow. The passion with which I went about eliciting enquiries seems to have subsided now, mainly due to lack of any major success so far. Apart from the savoury company which bought a small volume and a trader in Hyderabad who had ordered a truck load, there was no other note-worthy success.

Some people say that the work is a process and not an end. Do I place much emphasis on visible results and not simply focus on the process? This could be the case.

My clinging to gain instant recognition is hard to go by. I do not seem to resist the idea of recognition and crave it unceasingly. If I do not get, I strive for it so badly that I tend to unbalance the process itself as it unfolds.

Do I see a pattern here on what happened in my earlier job? During my first six months there, my work was noticed very much. A sizeable first order brought in euphoria. And then much inquiries followed. Few foreign trips materialized. But after that, the enthusiasm died down when none of the enquiries fructified. Few heartburn of colleagues ensured that my job allocation got altered unreasonably. Then I started losing momentum. The pattern is obvious.

What could I have done better in my earlier organisation?

I should not have lost momentum at my lack of success. I should not have viewed my senior as a friend and should not have started venting my frustrations. I should have maintained a healthy distance with him. I should not have shown excessive competitiveness with my colleague. I should have regularly cleansed my jealous emotions that arose on seeing the colleague booking more business. I should not have carried the so-called sense of superiority in me with regard to the colleague. I should have refrained from criticizing the colleague openly. Instead of focusing exclusively on results, I should have focused on learning and observation.

Does the past give any clues about what should I do?

– The start is usually good. So I am a good beginner. But I seem to be having troubles finishing. So I give up and start looking for change. The change is not helping me at all, as the patterns re-emerge. (Analysing more deeply, even the notion that I am not able to finish may not be true….in my previous organization, I had got a very major deal with huge profitability just a few days before being relieved..)

– I have this tendency to look for friendships inside the organization. Some times in Bosses, Sometime in the colleagues. I seem to be searching for friends in a fiercely competitive place called – Organisation. When I do not find a friend in Boss or in the colleagues, I view the environment as harsh.

– I tend to colour the events with a lot of emotions. So my view, at times, are not balanced. I always tend to wear my emotions in my sleeve. This ruffles others who do not understand my point of view. I do not understand the simple fact that everyone cannot and will not understand my view.

– In the process, I always set my self very high standards. I am not able to accept my own short-comings and be able to live with it. If I am good to myself, If I am moderate in my expectations, then I will be able to accept others – be it the Boss which has his faults, be it the colleagues who are competing. Only in accepting the things and people as they are, lies the mechanics of improving whatever one thinks as imperfect.

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Am I really feeling the lull now? Why am I feeling it?

Let me list out the business opportunities which have brought me to a stand-still at this point of time. May be, listing them out would make me look at them objectively thereby help me gaining different perspective with which those opportunities can be approached at.

– The Canadian customer pushing goal-posts every time I think he is about to finalize. First it was on pricing, now on the packaging format…… is he chasing a real business opportunity? If it is a real and present opportunity, why is he not clear about two main components – price and packing?

– The savoury preparations company in Bangalore keeps asking for two new products. The Purchase Head was chasing me for a while on phone but when I sent him the product images for his confirmation, he became silent. When I called him to remind him on this, again he sounded interested. But no communications later on. Did we take a long time in responding to his needs? Has he in the meanwhile started working with a different supplier?

– The Pizza chain agreed to test our second sample (after our first sample was approved and our price quote was considered ridiculously expensive! – https://hemgan.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/the-closed-screen/ ). But the rejected the second sample as unusable. Our QA manager also agreed with their observations without any counter-arguments. So I presume type B samples may have been really bad.

– The fast food chain in Mumbai still has not sent us the images of their current raw materials for our technical team to check. Our guys are also equally belligerent that they will not make samples unless they receive the product images from the client.

– The Ketch-up and Sauces brand has taken unusually long time in evaluating our samples. The needed improvements in our sample were communicated after a long wait and many phone calls. The concerned staff in that company are always traveling. So when I call them – they say “X is in Patna today, Y is in Kochi, Z is returning from Cuttack tomorrow.”…This sounds very strange because the people I follow-up with are mostly R&D personnel. When the guys are always on the move, when will they work?

– The importer in Japan has passed on our samples to his client, waiting for feedback. In this case, no stale-mate yet.

– The flavour-extracting company had asked for our standard specifications of a particular product. The technical head of theirs and our QA manager are having difference of opinion over most permitted Total Plate Counts (a microbiological measure ) in the product. They both are tired with their arguments and stopped exchanging emails. The project has completely come to a stand-still.

– Two inquiries received from Italy and Turkey are yet to be replied to, as I am waiting indefinitely for pricing from the factory.

– The American Retail sourcing company have cancelled their agreed visit to our plant twice and am still waiting for them communicating a new date.

– Another US Client visited the plant and was impressed about it. Bur did not accept our quotations though. Not sure what they have in mind about working with us. If they show some signs, then we can walk the extra mile…they have been aloof and indifferent.

Hmm…not bad…I have been pursuing many leads…. why should they be viewed as stale-mates? Shouldn’I consider them as work-in-progress?

Calm mind, Clear Understanding, Not giving-up mentally, Keeping patience, Clear focus……what more do I need to keep going?……persistence against odds….actually, nothing is at stake….just to keep on working…that’s all…