The worry magnet

Our minds are worry magnets. They seem to have the ability to ween out the worries in everything and attract them. The case in point to bring this thought was this :-

The company that I had worked in, had set up business newly at a clients place - setting up business in my line of work means setting up servers and plugging in applications with the client systems to have in place solutions that will improve the efficiency of the clients marketing operations (heck - I'd make an awesome technical writer!)

The client had given an "ok" on the set up, and the team that was responsible for implementation left. Left as in, back to India - the client location was outside of India. I came into the picture post this, for operations - for running the applications and provide consulting support.

The day I met the client I knew things were going to be bad for me - we were supposed have started making money on the service and nothing seemed to be happening. This had been haeppening for 2 months and I was guilty as hell for not being able to do anything about it. I was worried that we were not using the application at all and this meant that there was money and time spent by a large number of parties for nothing and I was the one guy who was going to be held responsible. Client would day I didn't do enough to make it work, my company back home would say I didn't try hard enough to sell the application to the client. So I was going to be a ping pong ball, being hit from both ends. Ask any account manager and he will tell you that this description holds good always in an account management job.

After 2 months of this, one day I was called in for a meeting. I went in summoning all the courage I had, which was a very small quantity. I had the sudden urge to go to the loo, started imagining what if I had not take this offer, what if I had done some more research etc, the basic what if's that your mind gives to try to calm you down. But then I had no choice and never being the one to chicken out, I went in.

I expected to be ripped apart and asked to leave immediately, but it didn't happen. The client pointed out why they were unwilling to use the product and I was surprisingly extremely well informed about everything they asked for. 

At the end of the one and a half hour meeting it became clear that I was not at fault at all. The product had a lot of features that warranted change and was to be done by the implementation guys. My mind just contorted the facts and made me stay worried for 2 months.

I realized - our minds are worry magnets, they tend to choose the worries and get us prepared for them. I think it's part of the reason the human race has survived. Its the survival of the fittest, we are even ready for problems that not even bound to happen.

The final outcome is that I'm not guilty anymore. As tech team and implementation team sorts out what has to be done, its time for me to improve my writing skills. yay!!