Did It Work Out?

About eight months later my wife and I were on our way back home from a funeral in Haifa and we were passing the industrial park where I wrote my first book and I decided to take my wife to meet these very interesting and wonderful people. When we got there Shlomo seemed a little too excited to see me and told us he had something to show us. He shlepped us to the other side of the building and after unlocking two or three very large and impressive doors, we came into this little room. In the center of the room again I saw the telltale silhouette of another machine under what was this time, a very clean sheet. He dragged off the sheet and the first thing my wife did was put her hands on this amazingly futuristic control panel! When asked why she did that, her reply was it was like a futuristic piece of sculpture and as a ceramicist she felt that was the thing to do. Well that got old Shlomo completely beside himself with excitement. I asked them what the price was and the reply was double (ha ha). Did you change anything else except the panel and the price? The answer was no. Less than a year later I heard that the machine had become a great hit with gynecologists and of course Ge-Medical bought them for a lot of money. Well if any of you are still reading this, you will be pleased to know that the experience underlines why I am still a technical writer. I realized it was the customers that made this job so interesting and I was part of a team that made a piece of equipment that definitely changed so many lives.

If you are new at this job and not certain if it is for you, look at it this way. You may be some sort of a ghost writer but the people around you are definitely in the world of the living. They are usually very smart and exciting to work with. For those of you that have been doing this for a while now and don’t get excited with what you do, go and find a place that does make you feel that you are actually part of an exciting team. Happiness is the talisman that wards off disease and a grumpy countenance. It is also something that is required on a daily basis.

Next issue: I Do Not Understand HR People