ZGAGA

I used to be a teenager once, you know. With all the usual teenage problems. Not getting along with anyone telling you what to do, occasional laziness, having constant crushes on my boyfriend (these have not passed yet), body changes and skin problems.

The latter I overcame with an effective cosmetic product. It was some kind of a cleaning lotion. I do not know its name anymore. I remember it was light blue and I could not buy it anywhere. Only the biggest shops had it.

Once I went to buy one and the lady at the counter holds it in front of me, looks at me, at my face, the lotion again, and once again my face.

– Girl, why are you buying this lotion if you have no acne and no pimples? 

– That is the exact reason I am buying it, madam.

She sells me the lotion, probably thinking to herself that I am mad to buy things I do not really need. I leave the store and think this was really weird of her to ask. However, don’t they say that every seller should sell the client, what s/he wants? Everybody knows the rule about the client being the king. There are some exceptions, of course, like selling cigarettes to a minor.

And again, did she ask herself, why am I not having problems with my skin? Probably not. She didn’t realize that I am probably buying the blue lotion because I have seen it work and prevented me from getting the acne and pimples.

This short story has several lessons.

1. What the client is buying is probably none of your business if s/he doesn’t ask for your opinion. And even if s/he does ask you, be frank and don’t nod to your bosses and lie to your client (f.e. how good she looks in that pink blazer) to generate more sales. If the client finds out you’re, lying this probably the last time he shops in your shop.
2. Could it be that the current state (in my case my skin, in other cases it maybe education, wealth, even good figure) is the result of a persistent and continuous effort of individuals, who at some time in the past have decided to make a step forward, set a goal and now still follow their path? Yes. Many times it is and we are not aware of it.
3. The outside is the result of the inside. The outside is many times the first thing we notice. We take it for granted that our neighbour is rich, because he has been rich for ever. We do not see it as the result of his hard work. Our colleague has a great figure. Again, we are not aware (or don’t want to be aware) that she exercises every day and counts the calories of every meal. Moreover, the cousin who did the faculty at one go, was born smart, not trying hard at all. Come on. Stop with thinking that if we are not prepared to work hard, nobody else is. There is a catch. If we never worked hard, we do not know how much work and time it takes. In addition, we cannot imagine ourselves putting that indefinite quantity of effort into a state we want to be in? Is it better to find excuses like, she has it all, I can’t compete with that? The outside marks what is inside and this is hard to understand for those who focus only on superficial, outside things.
4. Even if we manage to push ourselves to get better is some things, we often expect only good results. Bad results are a disappointment. This hurts. Actually, many times the bad results seem bad only at first. If we put some thoughts to it and extract all the valuable learnings from it, we find out they are actually good results. Therefore, it is impossible that trying, putting effort into matter is bad for us. We learn a lot and are better prepared next time.
5. If you see that something works, don’t stop doing it. That would be silly. Don’t lose your passion. Stay persistent and continue, until you reach the desired goal.

If you think the five lessons above are true only for your personal life, you are wrong. Think of your work environment, organisation you work for and the development of it. Constantly checking what others do and finding excuses why we are not there yet, does not bring any results.

I think my lotion lessons provide some answers. Dig into work and do not stop.

If I had stopped back then, many would have still remembered me as a pimply teenager, squeezing the zits.

Although I again tried to find that lotion, I wasn’t really successful. Anyway, I did find some interesting products to buy to wash away the pest of zits. Did you know they existed? I didn’t.