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Telling Tales

Telling the story is the most important sometimes than the event that requires it. An exec I have known for a while resigned from his job abruptly right around Thanksgiving last year. All signs pointed to him being a lifer at the company - his growth had been steady and predictable over the years. And then one day he was gone. Those who were close to him were not surprised, the rest did not care. R had to tell his story and make the event count - and so he did. It was steeped in the usual cliches about taking time for self-discovery and spending time with family - a bit late being an empty nester with married kids some might say. But that was his story anyway. 

He posted pictures of said family enjoying the holidays together to lend credence to the story. He had a call to action at the end of it - I am open to work so please introduce me to people. Those of us who have known R for a while have seen him make some spectacularly bad decisions though he is generally pretty competent. It was one of those traits he had. It made me wonder if that had not been his undoing in the end. I am not sure R had read the general guidelines of how not to tell such stories because it sounded a lot like the gaffes he made during his tenure at the company. 

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