The Green Eyed Monster

One of the projects that I've been busy with is preparing the launch of a regional newsletter for my company. No, not the entire company, just my business unit which is an amoeba swimming in the huge ocean of my company. I'm talking in terms of how cash rich our unit is. Yes, of course I'm exaggerating! But I'm in a funny mood tonight. Much like someone who's been kept in the mad house wrongly. But by the time they realise their mistake and let him out, he's already gone a little mad...

Anyway, while collating articles for the newsletter, I decided that I wanted some stories on the Amazing Race Asia. So I wrote this colleague from the Business Unit which constituted the ocean (the term swimming in money comes to mind) for the stories - he's the only one I know who was present for both Amazing Race Asia road shows.

He's a Kiwi and hails from the Hobbit Land of New Zealand. Yes, I know that Hobbit Land is NOT NZ, but the fact that it was filmed there makes it almost the same. Well, he's a former professional car racer who gave up his career to work with us. I never asked about the burn marks on his neck, but it wouldn't be difficult to guess how he got them. In any case, they didn't mar the fact that he's tall, blonde with blue eyes, pretty good looking, and has a really kind heart. He also happens to be happily married (rats!).

Being the nice guy that he is, he agrees to do the 2 articles for me, in the spirit of "enterprise building". I was happy, and waited for a "quick and dirty", "get it done and over with" type of article. After all, that was what I would have been happy with, telling him that 2-3 paragraphs for each would be good enough.

When the mail came in, I was stunned, blown out of my mind if you will. If I had gone out and gotten a professional foreign reporter (yes, not even local reporter for the Straits Times would do) and paid him a freelancer's fee to cover the event, it would be of the same quality of the article he sent. It was then that a network of brain cells came alive, tapped me on the shoulder, and reminded me that someone had mentioned he had a degree in journalism.

I couldn't believe what a stroke of good luck it was. His article was not only perfect, it conveyed the exact mood I wanted readers to have when going through the articles about the Amazing Race, and more. And I felt privileged that he had actually stayed back late in the office to finish the articles for me, as a favor.

I confess, that at the same time that I was surprised, the green ugly monster reared its head. Of course it was my own fault, for not having made a more conscious effort in writing, reading and improving my style. But while practice and hard work definitely pays off, it knows when to bow down to TALENT too. *clubs the green eyed monster to death*