Of swings
March has strode into my life and has already dictated the terms for the rest of the year. With the loss of Wellington, the graduation of five students, foreign trips of three and the imminent maternity of another, my roll has started to dwindle back to levels not seen in a very, very long time. I was aware from the New Year break that such a predicament could arise. And foreknowledge did soften the increasingly sharp realisation of what was coming.
Fortunately, I have appealing contingency plans, but still first I'll apply myself to plan A with all my strength. This enterprise of mine means a rather lot to me and I shan't let it slip into a coma. After some hesitation, I've returned to that horrid task of cold-calling. Already there has been some promising signs. One of the most promising signs is the kindness of receptionists to yield contacts so easily and the friendliness of those whom I've had to deal with.
Cold-calling, three years ago, resulted in my biggest working success. One single cold-called potential client became my greatest income stream, gave me a transnational status for a year and provided the joy of full-time occupation with my work. The students were pretty marvellous too. And so, again, in the depths of this recession I again will seek to uncover a seam of gold. Or perhaps just a spring or two to keep me warm over the winter. The search for that client took two patches of sustained cold-calling, the first ending with a lot of leads that were followed to their ends without success. It is a rather brutal process and it'll take a long time before I can, with some eagerness, raise the phone to do such calls. I'm expecting a long haul once more.
In my early years of business, I made use of my surplus time with Chinese study, reading and also philosophical investigation. This time round it'll be firmly centred on developing my writing skills. My chinese study will be rehabilitated, reading maintained and swimming sustained, but I will keep writing as a core. I want to see what I can do. I want to fulfil my potential here.
If my teaching endeavour fails altogether, I will likely head to Europe and England for travel before flying to China to educate, earn and adapt in a Chinese environment, before once again returning to my much loved home, New Zealand. Quite an enviable plan B, eh!
6 comments:
>>This time round it'll be firmly centred on developing my writing skills
While I am not capable of commenting on your grammar, use of words and ways of constructing sentences, I do have to say that in terms style, your posts here are generally a bit thin on creative narratives and emotionally engaging elements (especially the longer ones, which I rarely finish).
A bit of unpredictable narrations and elaborations of how things felt and meant to the protagonist (ie. you) would add some magic to your stories.
Of course you can ignore what I've just said if by 'writing' you're referring to report or business writings.
I would disagree with lightspirits - I like your writing style. It's easy to read; I like the metaphors and the philosophical insights.
Let me know when you have something you would like me to read.
Random comment - looking at the blog archive list on the right-hand side of the page, it looks like your posting frequency diminishes with each passing year! (Not that I can claim to do any better).
I did notice that too once I reformatted the page! Each year was unfailingly lower than the previous but by a smaller margin each time. Must be mathematical!
It is odd too because it doesn't feel that I've dropped my postage rate year-on-year! But then again, if I didn't go to China or have relationship ructions, maybe there'd have been no posts at all! And on year one I did almost one post every two days!! I must have been obsessed.
Regarding lightspirits' constructive criticism, I was going to reply honestly, but I feared he'd take it sarcastically. Although if I were to use an ironic tone, I thought he might take it seriously. On the whole though, we seek different things in the creative endeavours and products so it isn't a surprise that the trajectory I'm on would not satisfy what he desires. It seems to be the recurring truth our regular conversations prove. There is a scope of styles and tastes though.
Looks like we're destined to be nemeses and never agree on certain things.
Ah well, what fun is there if you have no one to disagree with you eh?
Indeed! (He notes in his diary another historic agreement.)
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