Narcissus

Almost everybody know the story about Narcissus. He (or She?) was busy ditting nearby a lake, doing nothing but adring himself through the reflection on the lake. One day, he fell into the lake, drowned and die. At the place where he fell, grow a flower, which is named Narcissus. Soon, the water in the lake turn salty. “Why are you crying? Do you feel sorry for Narcissus”, asked the Goddess. “No, it is because, when he sitting beside me, I can look myself through the reflection in his eye”, the lake replied.

— Adapted from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Since then, the word Narcist or Narcism is used to call a person who have too much love for himself. Too much that, he thought that he is the best, noone is better than him.

Do such behaviour can be generalized that, when someone is proud of himself, take the initiative to lead, or maybe a little bit boasting to promote himself is considered Narcist?

Adating word from my friend, maybe he just incidentally know how good he is……

“You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.”

I never see my boss in this level of stress. Not surprising though, with 2 projects in big trouble, with no foreseeable end, and noone seems capable to handle it, even the most calm person could become stressed.

The impact? I guess it finally come down to me too. While I’m half dead keeping my project on schedule, my resources is being pulled out to help the troubled project. With some school homework, I must admint that I’m also stressed out the chaos at the office.

All the situation reminds me of the quote my friend once used in her email signature. A quote from Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, which holds some truth in it. Every leader can lead in good time, but to look for a true great leader, you will need a chaos to find it.

I just wish that the real leader will show up himself fast, so that we can get out of the whole trouble, look back, and be proud, because we manage to get through.

Two Favourite Quotes

“You got what you paid for”. This one is inspired from an article in BusinessWeek. It is about Dell, which is known for cheap PC and Notebook. Well…. BusinessWeek found an interesting fact: Dell’s customer satisfaction is heading south. Some people said that they got transferred 3 times, each with 30 minutes of waiting time, before they decided to hang up. And guess… Dell offers a service plan, which will give the client a priority call, less transfers, etc…. with certain price. Looks like you still got to pay more for a service, eh?

“You can’t please everybody, so you might just as well please yourself”. This quote is inspired from the event in the last 2 days in my office. A customer keep yelling at me, and my Project Manager, instead of helping to talk with them, keep asking me about status update. So, this is what I said to her and my boss: I only have 2 hands, and can only do so much. I’ve done my best, and I don’t give a shit if they’re still not happy.” (Now, I sound like William Hung, eh? :P). Same case for my basketball team. When they keep yelling at me to improve how I handle the team, I just smile at them, and said in my heart “Heck, this is not make me anything. I’m enjoying the game, and if they can only yell without offering any help…. GO TO HELL :D”