tackticks of buddy don: lucky brakes

[note frum bd: a nuther reason blogger makes me crazy is this. i writ the post below a'usin colors, witch they show in color in the prevue but not when posted. tiz verr annoyin. duz the bolded thangs cum out in color fer ye? or jes in bold black? tiz verr annoyin. innywho, magin that the wurd 'volunteer' cum out in orange n the daily agenda in blue n the daily ($1) dollar in green n so furth.

but wiat, thars more garbage frum blogger. when i publishd this, half of it jes disapeard. lucky fer me, miz bd hadnt reloded her page, witch when she copied the post into a email, them color cum out. is thar wurser bloggin software than blogger? twood be hard to bleeve thar could be.]

i writ yesterdy bout how i had sum verr good luck with my job that led to a form of motivayshun that has been a'wurkin well fer a few years now. heres whut happend.

i wurk at one of wall streets major firms, witch lets jes call it goodbank. i gut the job back in 2002. i had been wurkin at a terrbull job befor that on a counta how whenever 9/11 happend, the job i had wuz buried in dust n i had to take 'inny port in a storm,' as they say. so when an ole boss of mine ast me to cum wurk fer her, i give it sum thought n after bout a year of talk, i gut the job.

six weeks after i gut the job, thay wuz a round of layoffs, witch that included my boss, my ole boss who hired me, n her boss (who i knew frum a prior job n who hepped me git in the door). i figgerd twuz the end fer me on a counta how it seemd lack i wuz the tail on that dog.

but thangs dint wurk out thataway. i wuz lucky a nuff to be kep on n since thay wuznt no other manjers at the time, the putt me in charge. twuz a verr stressful time on a counta how i dint know hardly nuthin bout the cultchur of the place, dint hardly know nuthin bout the infrastructchur, dint have no natherull allies in a verr tuff enviroment.

but i did have a few thangs a'goin fer me. fer one, i had made friends with minny a banker whenever i wuz wurkin at a nuther wall street firm, witch lets jes call thatn badbank. i also had the confidents of the main person we had to please in the 'bu,' witch they refer to them folks ye support as the business unit even tho they never say nuthin but bu (did i mentchun i wurk in computer support?).

rite away, i gut requests to do this n that n tuther thang. i dint hardly know my staff, dint hardly know who wuz good at whut. far as i could tell, the hole team wuz verr unhappy, spendin lots of time a'wurryin bout whut they wuz havin to do more wurk than the nex guy.

i dint know much whut to do, witch thats when i had a bit of good luck.

bein frum tennessee, i made a big deal of bein a volunteer. everday i had a list of thangs that needed doin, so i gut in the habit of sendin out sumthin i called the daily agenda. i wood ast ifn i had a volunteer to do this or that. corse, them that lacked doon that kinda wurk wood offer thar servus n that hepped me figger out sho wuz good at whut.

i wood bold ever name n use colors n such sos to make it a lil more fun. folks lacks to see thar name in print n boldin it made it easier fer em to pick out the names.

one mornin, i writ that we wood have trainin at 11 am. rite away i gut a note frum the trainer lettin me know the trainin wuz at 10, not 11. twuz a grate ketch on his part, so i created a rule that more or less changed everthang. i deecided that ifn a reader could find a miss take lack i made that day, i wood pay em one dollar, witch i gut in the habit of ritin it as the daily ($1) dollar.

corse ye caint call sumthin the daily ($1) dollar ifn ye dont award folks a dollar everday. i had dun gut in the habit of ritin thanks n kudos to innybidy that had volunteerd to do sumthin or even ifn they had dun a real good job without volunteerin. one day, i fergut to thank sumbidy, so one of my best team members writ me a note to say i orta say thans n kudos to the feller i had dun missd. so i invented a rule named after that grate team member.

long stary short, the rules grew n grew. whenever we had embedded jurnlists a'goin over to cuver our wars, i announced i wood embed sum errs in the daily agenda n ifn i did, ye wood half to ketch it to win. i also started puttin in a lil puzzle that i named the tie-breaker, i reckun that gut to be the mos poplar part of the hole thang.

corse, to keep folks motivated, i wood lis the top winners to date, witch i calld it the daily ($1) dollar club. after a year of so of that, i started listin the teams n addin up all the winnins of the differnt team members.

at the start, i wuz sendin the daily agenda to jes a few folks -- my frunt line team of 4 wurkers n my full time staff team of 3. now its gut a readership of over 90 folks.

so whut wuz the pitcher? tiz the winnins to date frum the verr beginnin of a feller that has won moren innybidy else. as ye kin see, them dollars mount up, but i figger tiz a bargain on a counta i kin count on folks readin the daily agenda with grate keer sos they kin find the embedded err or figger out the tie-breaker n so furth.

twuz a bit of luck to git me past a ruff patch of life but it turnt into sumthin that folks hate to live without. sumtimes i git tired of havin to doot on a counta how it means i have to git to wurk early. but i caint beat the affeck.

that dont mean we aint gut problems, but tiz a good thang when folks is trine to win the daily ($1) dollar by prazin the wurk of a nuther team member.

nuff sed.