After a scalding incredibly strong Arabic coffee, Alex walked in around eight - very proud of his new contribution to the company. Suddenly, without warning the inner door, opened with a rush and there stood the ugliest fellow one could dream up, yet, when he smiled there was a gleam of humanity, compassion, empathy all rolled into one.
Les stood up and said, Lesley, I want to introduce you to our newest and most promising sales representative. If he manages to make the grade, which I believe he will, he may even be our most promising prospect next week as well? Lesley was the paymaster! Get yourself registered with Lesley young man, we have a sales meeting at 2.00 this afternoon, be there, listen, learn and make me proud next week - I don’t like making bad bets so don't let me down.
After the meeting the reps went over to Lesley's office - everyone got an advance to pay for expenses while away from Johannesburg - this was a real surprise - you got a 1,000 rands advance for two weeks away - so if you lived frugally you could have a bunch of money over. It was semantics though; I soon learned that as soon as you got paid those expense draws were deducted from commissions. Nonetheless, it was a tremendous help and gave me the wherewith-all to subsist, with food accommodation and entertainment, in a style my lifestyle was recently unaccustomed to.
It was Friday morning; we were in the breakfast dining room of the Pietersburg Holiday Inn. Alex on my left, Bob dwarfing me on my right, and Woody, Prins, Mike, and the two fairly attractive young girls that had joined the week before. I had been with the company for around seven months and was reasonably senior in the sales hierarchy.
Bob ordered a round of Bloody Mary’s for the table, tomato juice, vodka and spices. I want to propose a toast - to Herby boy, as he had begun to nickname me - you did it man - still didn’t know what he was on about - it was early, I and everyone else were seriously hung over - yep, he says, for the first time in our company's history, we have a rep that wrote more than 100,000 rands in sales for the week.
Things began to go really really well after that; I was seriously involved and committed - after a year the wheel turned and I found myself back at the area I had originally started working for the company in.
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The Money Movers
Mystery / ThrillerDuring the transition to black majority rule in many parts of Africa, currency controls were a way of life. Wealth, money and transportable assets (gold and jewellery, gems, stamps and coins) were moved around the sub continent in large sums - this...
