Introduction; By Richard Templar
For reasons that are too long and complicated to go into here I had to live with my grandparents for a couple of years when a was very young. They, ike many of their generation. were bard-working, contented sort ol people. My grandfather had aken carly retirement owing to an industrial accident (a Jorry in load of bricks fell on his toot) and my grandmother worked a large department store in London.
Having me dumped unexpectedly on her for a while obviously caused logistics cal problems. I was too young tor school and my grandfather wasn't to be trusted to look after me at home (men didn't look after children in those days . my, how things have changed). Her solution was to tuck me under her wing on some days physically as well as metaphorically, as she smuggled me past managers and supervisors - and we went to work together.
Now going to work with Nan' was fun. I was expected to keep quiet and still for long periods and, as I didn't know any different, assumed this was normal. I found that by watching customers - often from my safe refuge under a huge desk - I could pass the time quite happily.
Thus was born an immense appetite for people-watching. My mother - later I went back to live with her - said it wouldn't ever get me anywhere. I'm not so sure. You see, early in my career, observation of those around showed that there was a distinct set of behaviours that got people promoted. lt there were two people of equal ability, for example, and one dressed, thought and behaved as if they had already been promoted, they would be the one who got the next available job at that next level. Putting these behaviours into practice gave me a fast track up the career ladder. These 'rules formed the basis of my book The Rules of Work, now a bestseller in its field.
Acknowledgements;
Zakia Moulaoui
Daniel Nortey
Jalaj Soni
Elif Vatanoglu
s as il our lives are an enormous jigsaw and all we get access t0 is the bottom left-hand bugc assumptions.: 'Oh, its a hand bit. And from that we make these But when the veil gets taken nUsee that the jigsaw is massive and that the one tiny bit were scrutinizing was actually something else, and there we are looking at an entirely different picture to the one wed magined. We are now collecting information faster than any human. or any computer, can process it. We can't understand it all We cant even begin to understand a tiny fraction of it. Same with our lives. Stuft is going on around us at such a rate well never get to the bottom of it. Because as fast as we try, the picture changes, new information comes in and our understanding alters. e curious, ask questions, wonder to yourself, talk to other People if you like - but know that this won't alwavs give Life of a Ciear and concrete answer Peonle don't alwavs make sense. eSnt always make sense. Let it go and dliscover the peace mind that comes with knowing verything. Sometimes it just is.
