A Day In The Office

Frank glances at the entrance to his cube to make sure no one is looking over his shoulder and then rereads the e-mail.

I'm putting on my top secret hat. I have an important project for you, which must be confidential. Unfortunately, we have to yank Paul's feeding tube. He suffers from the same terminal disease the rest of the sales force suffers from, laziness! Anyhow, I want you up to speed on his largest account, Star Solutions, so you will hit the ground running when you're the new Paul. You're the right person with the right energy to launch us to the next level on these accounts!!! I'm counting on you!!! Please sink your teeth into this project immediately and alert me if there is any guidance I can offer. NEED STATUS UPDATE BY COB. Thanks Kathy, Executive VP of Operations

Looking back at the e-mail, he can only come up with one thought: Finally, justice will be served. Standing on his toes, he looks over the line of cubes and observes Paul's. Unlike Frank's cube, which has only framed performance awards and a small picture of his family to minimize distractions, Paul's has hanging plants, a stereo with earphones, photos of his skiing trips, a framed diploma, and one picture of Paul with his very short brown hair and stylish goatee. Frank smolders as he looks at the website Paul's on, a sports site and at Paul's short frame that is growing a potbelly. He's soft Frank thinks. Paul should've been more disciplined like me at the gym every morning. Instead he's turning into a dough boy. Something like this would never happen to me. I'm always one step ahead of everyone.

Frank's mind goes back to a selling seminar he attended called "Sales is a Jungle." The presentation started with a smoke and laser show, and then the speaker ran out on stage and jumped on a chair and yelled out to the crowd, "Are you a Cheetah or an Elk? Are you a Lion or fat assed Water Buffalo?" Frank was sitting in the middle of the auditorium, but he swears the man looked right at him and pointed saying, "You know what the problem is? Everyone thinks they are the lion but they're not. There can only be one king of the jungle and if you want to do more than just survive, if you want to reign over the sales world you have to be the lion."

In the six months since the seminar, Frank's life has been changed forever as he has lived the life of the lion. He is now fanatically disciplined. Waking up every day and exercising, dieting to knock off that ten pounds of gut, he has slowly moved up the sales chain in the office by getting there everyday exactly at 7:45 am and not leaving until 7:00 pm or later. He keeps a detailed journal of every call, meeting and deal. His day is perfectly organized to be on the offensive from the second he sits down at his desk until he packs up his business. He'll do anything, drive any distance, come in on weekends, even work when he is sick. When it rains, or snows or is a perfect day. Nothing keeps him from his desk and he is always ready to pounce on anything that has the slightest hint of an opportunity.

Like the predator that he is, he has snuck through the underbrush and has dismantled everyone in his way and now he is going to take down his greatest prey, Paul. Paul, who gets here after 9:00 everyday, cuts out early to play golf when it's nice outside, claims he's at a client on Friday afternoons when he's really at some happy hour with his friends drinking his wine, twirling it in his glass, smelling it and saying pretentious things like, "I like the oaky quality to this cabernet. I detect a hint of juniper." And worst of all, he dozes off in the sales meetings that Frank meticulously prepares for.

Frank hates Paul because despite his transgressions against the law of the wild, he does well. Actually, not just well, he's one of the best; most cruelly of all, despite his lackadaisical work ethic, he sits above Frank on the sales revenue board that hangs on the wall outside of Kathy's office. Every Friday morning they calculate their numbers and no matter the effort Frank puts forth, Paul is always painfully above him. Last Friday when they reviewed the board, Paul slapped Frank on the back and said, "Sorry kid, maybe next week. Now I have to go; I'm late for my tee time." As Paul began to walk away his feet made a click clack sound. Frank looked down and saw he was wearing golf shoes. Golf shoes in the office! Like he didn't even care that everyone knew he wasn't going to do anything. Frank simmered over that for days, while he hammered away at his desk but now that's going to end like it should because, as the presentator said at the seminar, eventually the lion triumphs over all of the weak.