Doing things differently...

It's been years since I've darkened the threshold of a church to attend a worship service, and I broke that streak today, for no discernible reason. Galina and I went back to the Community United Methodist Church that we more-or-less attended regularly back in 1995, before the Big Move down to Texas. While in Texas, I attended a handful of services, but none of them gave me the spiritual boost that I found at the Methodist Church in downtown Pagosa Springs.

We hardly recognized anyone among the attendees. There was one woman in the choir that I remembered from auld lang syne, and a couple across the aisle. The reverend was a stranger to us (which is not surprising, seeing as how the Methodists like to move their pastors around every couple of years or so, it seems).

Not to put too fine a point on the issue, but I did notice that the extent of the service's relevance to immediate current events was when the pastor asked the congregation to pray for our leaders and our soldiers.

* * *I did a subject-specific revision of my resume for one client (highlighting my work in particular subject areas), and did a workup of "discounted" rates for work done using TRADOS. The whole issue of "discounting" one's work is interesting (I checked out the past couple of years of the LANTRA-L archive), and perhaps I shall devote some time to a more detailed analysis of the issue, but for now, I think I've reached a good balance between a client's desire to be competitive and my desire to stay solvent financially.

* * *I started reading the books Galina and I bought at the Kiyosaki seminar last week. I'm about 100 pages into Sales Dogs, by Blair Singer and just started the alluringly titled Loopholes of the Rich, by Diane Kennedy.

Singer's book is interesting, but so far, I'm at a loss to see where it would help me. His basic theme is that there is no one selling style that works, and he proceeds to use a canine analogy to categorize sales people into five groups: aggressive (pit bulls), service-oriented (golden retrievers), charming and charismatic (poodles), highly knowledgeable (chihuahuas), and relationship-builders (basset hounds).

Singer's approach is a far cry from, say, that of Hank Trisler (author of No Bull Selling), who is a "pit bull," if I read Singer's book right. It's interesting to see a proliferation of books that acknowledge the correctness of different approaches to selling (Selling the Way Your Customer Buys, coauthored by one of our clients, is another example of this kind of book).

Unfortunately, I do not presently see how this information can be of help to me. Then again, it' s only just now entered my mind, so... :^)

* * *Did some paper chasing today after getting back from church. I plan to hit the paper chase hard this week (or until some translation work comes in), and then hand the entry task to someone else.

Cheers...