I don’t like eavesdropping. There is nothing people talk about that I want to eavesdrop on. If eavesdropping were ever necessary, then what the eavesdropper was straining to hear was definitely not worth hearing. I say the same goes for “state secrets” and whatever Heads of Nations or Heads of Governments say in “secret” meetings. In this world, if you have to “keep it under wraps” and be told that it is “private and confidential”, then it isn’t. That’s not the point of this post, but just to say that I can’t help “eavesdropping” at times because I cannot help but hear the conversations, as inane and as banal and as irritating as they are.

Have you ever heard of people “winging it”? “Fake it till you make it”? Things that make me smoke. If you know, you either don’t talk but execute or you present in order to get the same picture in the minds of whoever concerned with whatever endeavour you are in. Yet in conversation after conversation that I can’t help but eavesdrop on, people talk about presenting what they themselves know to be utter nonsense but which they pretend to be sage gems or lovely pearls of profitable wisdom. The thing is, I hear so often that the people they are presenting this nonsense to, supposedly older and wiser cognitive beings charged with making decisions, actually know that nonsense is being presented but pretend that they are weighing carefully whatever rubbish is being babbled or shown on screens and making good decisions as a result. In one conversation, two obviously disgruntled little girls were talking about sales figures for a multitude of products being fudged so that the top lines would look spectacular regardless of how much or how little shampoo or waistbands or milk powder had or had not been sold. Figures for the Asia-Pacific, Indonesia, South Korea, etc, were likewise fudged so that whoever it was in charge of “marketing” could justify the salaciously high allocation of nonexistent funds to the marketing effort, oh, excuse me, I meant the deception operations.

Many years ago, some higher-up had mentioned to me that life was all about who was better at bluffing whom. Better bluffers were better marketers, salespersons and so forth. No wonder so many job advertisements are for sales and marketing positions. Does that mean production, operations and logistics people are the only ones who do work, produce good stuff and earn a decent day’s pay? Not on your life. As the old saw goes, “As long as they pretend to pay us, we will pretend to work.”

Do you like Fudge in your life? I don’t think so. Nobody likes Grudge, and Grudge is what you get if you Fudge. So stop Fudging! If you work in a place where you are directed to Fudge, you always have the option of leaving and earning your keep in much more fulfilling ways. Stop grudging around for handouts, “entitlements” and the like. Stop clawing your way and holding out your hands and tongues for whatever “…you can get…” Start producing goods and services that YOU are utterly satisfied with. Don’t expect me to tell you how, you already know. If you want to live above cynically running after money and the pleasures of life, then start looking around and asking yourself how you can make people around you genuinely happy.

You don’t need to fudge THAT one. Think you know better than me? Then come and teach me. You’re welcome!