Mood:
specialNow Playing: Still nothing... still at Rachel and James'
Topic: Noz Update
Paris
Oooooooooooooooooooooh, PARIS!
Anyone who read my last update knows how I feel
about France, and Paris is the epicentre of all things Frenchy. There's a
quote by Rembrant (or it could be Van Gogh...?) that goes something along the
lines of:
"Paris... Paris is Paris.
There is only one Paris. And although life here may sometimes be
difficult... French air clears the mind."
Hoo, baby, that just about says it all. I
tend to assume Impressionists are kind of dorks (Cubism
people!! You know I'm right!!) but I love that quote. In
truth, this trip I didn't actually spend that much time in Paris. I was
mainly in Le Havre, and for three straight days I did a 2.5 hour commute from Le
Havre, on the north coast, down to Paris itself, and then immediately out to
visit our business partners. I had 4 meetings in three days, each with a
Partner who'd chosen a far flug suburb of Paris in which to tuck their
office. Xerox was closet, but really on the "edge" of Paris - just outside
the periferique near the Parc de Villet - and that took nearly 30 minutes
from Gare St Lazare where I got out each morning.
Nevertheless, like so many metropoliseseses, Paris
has an energy that can't be missed even if you're just going for dinner and a
walk down a few blocks of the city centre. This trip I did manage to
have my first truly bad meal in Paris. After Xerox, I dashed,
near-starving, to a chain restaurant called "Hippopotamus" that
showed a non-stop series of movie-trailers on multiple flat-screen TVs while you
ate. Basically, it was like bad British food, in an American venue, in
Paris. I was served a piece of meat that had been exposed to a heat source
of some kind (and some butter), next to some plain boiled green beans and a pot
of tasteless stewed shallots. It was so bland I couldn't even make it
through the whole thing.
I was rescued the next day by my
friends/BizPartners in Montreuil, an eastern subburb of
Paris. I mentioned that I'd eaten at Hippopotamus and they burst out
laughing. We went for African food at a restaurant where the chef had just
gotten some pretiguous award, and subsequently a radio show, done about his
work. I got an excellent sweet curry chicken confit (how much does
confit rule?) with white rice and green olives. I managed to have a
nice Bordeaux (I usually hate Bordeaux) and mercifully the coffee was
good.
The Widely Known Secret:
I also re-discovered the trick to quick and
friendly service in France. SPEAK FRENCH. Having just got back from
South America, my Spanish is good and my French is terrible. Still, after
about 4 days in Le Havre I was doing ok. By the time I was in Paris I could
get through ordering a meal and having a light chit-chat with the locals.
It's shocking how much people respond to you being able to just be polite, and
say, "How much is a Coca-cola? Excuse me, four bucks? So, then
you're crazy, is that it?" or, "Does that come with Freedom Fries?" (or, Frites
de la Liberte, as they're called here) without forcing them to speak or
decipher a language they're not comfortable in, and kinda resent for invading
their homeland. They pick me out pretty quick as a non-native speaker, but
they appreciate the effort. Not having to repeat themselves nor go "huh?"
a dozen times for every verbal transaction helps too. I'm sure more
phrases are incorrect than correct, but I really get lost and fumble less than
half the time. Mostly my French amuses more than annoys people and
everyone (except for one fast-talking prick of a cab-driver...) was
lovely to me.
Work Goes Gets Less Crap:
Business-wise the trip was a smash. I'm
starting to remember why I do this job. Other than the travel, I used to
love my work because it was engaging and stimulating on many levels: I used to
interact with interesting people, solve interesting problems, eat lots of great
food, take lots of photos of Europe, and hit on hotties from new and exciting
places (a merciful plane-ride away from never seeing them again if I messed
up).
In the last 6 months I have been in the
salesteam. Basically that's like being put in dank grey prison and
told to work day and night to build a full-featured artificial heart out of dry
spagetti and your own hair (no scissors allowed, so
get yanking). Your only interaction with the outside world is being
taken out once a week for a brutal beating about the head and genitalia with a
splintery plank of wood with the words "SELL! SELL! SELL!"
written on it in babies' blood. That heart-warming motivational
technical is called "the sales conf call". I didn't enjoy that as
much as you'd think from reading this charitable description of it.
I am now Partner Business Development Manager,
XMetaL Group, Europe, Middle-East and Africa (or PBDMXGEMEA for short).
Meaning, my job is less about direct sales, (or beatings) and more about
engaging other organisations for the building and maintaining of
active, profitable partner relationships. I present our organisation,
our unique offerings, our success stories, and our marketing, sales and product
strategy. Then I define and manage the collaboration in our network of
partners for the broad-brush increase in license revenues across in my
geographies. To many, this may not seem much different or much more fun --
or even remotely intelligible. To me, it's doing what I love vs. doing
what I can do, and sometimes get a kick out of, but really don't enjoy
as a full-time job. I might miss Ol' Planky (as I'd come to call my
"motivation board") on lonely nights, the holidays, or bathroom breaks, but in
truth, I am not interested in being a real salesman. I like to work on the
big picture.
Continued in my "Le Havre"
Update....
Posted by Noz
at 12:01 AM GMT
