Tiger On Your Tail

This morning the Tiger Team met at the home of the writer at its regular start time of 9 o'clock. No freshly baked cinnamon rolls today. No, no. Too plebeian we're advised. Instead we are treated to Chinese dim sum and jasmine tea. Lovely and delicious. The attorney bemoans not having access to strong, black coffee for the first time since he was twelve, but relents. As the munching begins the writer/facilitator puts the team on notice that we have but one more meeting scheduled and suggests we each consider whether or not to extend our ten-week agreement. By next meeting each individual member is required to go on record about continuing, adding or replacing one or more current members, and to delineate a new individual game plan. We are Tiger Team, after all, and our operating principal is to establish a clear goal and to attack it with the intent to achieve it by our final session.

The business man is ready to go and expresses that, after careful research and consideration, his conclusion is that because his lotion products and skin treatments are best sold with the help of live demonstrations, his distribution plan will have to include some way of conducting these demonstrations. He asks us to consider thinking outside the box and to listen to his MLM (multilevel network marketing) plans. We discuss the often negative things that are said about MLMs as well as the hard work that is apparently required to succeed. Ultimately we unanimously agree that because of his savvy (and beautiful) wife and business partner, and because of their shared enthusiasm, he has an excellent chance to succeed. We get samples of his lotions. By the end of the meeting I am smelling quite a bit like coconut.

The stymied publisher admits little or no progress with her plans to become an eBook publisher - simply calling it inertia. A familiar state (evidently) and one she's just willing to be in. We remind her that the best cure of inertia and/or procrastination is a big brother or a drill sergeant or a guy with a whip and a chair - or a Tiger Team on your tail. It's depressing and yet at the same time fascinating to hear of other opportunities she feels she's missed in her life. Why the inclination now to just watch another chance go by is beyond us - but we convince her that the knowing of why may just be the booby-prize. We suggest that she just transcend the knowing and get to work.

Next week the final meeting is back on the island. Champagne and orange juice is requested by the writer (me). It is so moved and seconded. I stroll with the publisher out to her car. She smells deliciously like Tahitian vanilla. There seems to be a mutual attraction going on here. Is it pheromones or is it the tropical lotions? It remains best unspoken. But I digress.