I’m retired now, so I no longer have, nor do I need, a “dream job.” That said, when I was still of the working age, my dream job would have been one where I was paid a lot of money and had to do very little actual work.
Unfortunately, I was never able to actually secure my dream job. As the song goes, I worked hard for the money.
When I learned that the used book store around the corner was closing, I rushed over to see if I could find a treasure. I came across a book I cherished as a child, Robert Lewis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island.”
I opened the book up and I saw a handwritten note written on the title page. Tears came to my eyes when I saw that it was from my parents written to me.
(Exactly 72 words)
Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the challenge is “note” in exactly 72 words. Photo credit: somewhere on the internet.
For this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, Linda G. Hill has given us the phrase “in a nutshell” to play with.
During the Eighties, I used to work for a company where my boss would hold two meetings every week — one on Monday mornings and the other on Friday mornings. These meetings were called “nutshell meetings” by my colleagues and me. Our boss would often use the phrase “in a nutshell” to emphasize that he was interested in the big picture, and not the small details, which he referred to as “minutiae.”
The purpose of the Monday morning meeting was to update our boss on the tasks we had and the challenges we faced for the upcoming week. The Friday morning meeting was a status update on whether we were able to complete the tasks and meet the challenges discussed on Monday. In case someone was getting too deep into the weeds, our boss would use a “stop” gesture with his right hand and say, “In a nutshell.”
I have to admit that I initially thought this whole “in a nutshell” concept was bullshit and a waste of time. At one of the meetings, I objected to being cut off in that manner and I said that the details were important and he should know about them. He glared at me and said, “In these meetings I want you to cut through all the minutiae and get straight to the heart of the matter. That’s what I need from you. It’s your job to work through all of the details necessary to get the job done.”
I left that company around three years later when I was recruited to take over a fairly large business unit at a different company. On my first day in my new role, I called all of my direct reports together and said, “Every Monday and Friday morning we are going to have what I call ‘in a nutshell’ staff meetings. In these meetings I want you to brief me on what I need to know, which means you need to cut through all the bullshit details and get straight to the heart of the matter. Any questions? No? Good, then let’s get started. And remember, in a nutshell.”
Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).
Today’s word is “instill.”
Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.
Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, ÿplease manually add your link in the comments.
And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. Show them some love.
This, That, and the Other 