A Character Trait

By Ed Baranosky

    Writing is like practicing psychiatry. It gives you the ability to play with people’s minds. An added bonus is that to do it you don’t have to spend six years in a classroom and thousands of dollars for a piece of paper.

    Flattery is the whipped cream and cherry on the dessert of ego. I enjoyed basking in the aura of it. The caption under my picture in my high school yearbook read: “The wheels of his brain are ever oiled.”

    It was after I was discharged from the army that I found a job that was less taxing on  my back. I was pretty good at what I did for a living.

    At a company meeting when my solution to a problem was explained to the group, a colleague would ask: “How did you do that?”

    At a company celebration, my wife and I were asked to sit at the executives’ table. The head of the company stood up and said: “One of the reasons we can celebrate tonight is because of Ed.” I soaked up the applause.

     Can you imagine the amount of air that can be pumped into an ego when a graduate of MIT asks your opinion on a dilemma he is facing?

     In my dealings with sales people, at the conclusion of our business I don’t say: “Have a nice day.” My parting words are: “May the Publishers Clearing House agent knock on your door.”

    The usual response is “I wish” or “That would be great.”

    At the bank I use a teller signed up for the PCH Sweepstakes at my suggestion.

    Lo and behold the agent knocked on her door with all the hoopla. She was a winner.

    In an interview on national TV she told her story and mentioned my name.

     Later when I left the company several competitors hired me to find solutions to their perplexing problems.

     I believe it was Frank Lloyd Wright who said: “It’s difficult to be humble when you’re  a genius.”

     I really don’t have to tell you what gets me into the most trouble . . . do I?

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