(Minghui.org) I am a 66-year-old Falun Dafa practitioner who is currently working in sales at the NTD television station.
Who’s Right and Who’s Wrong
NTD's vice chairman asked me to help with a government contract proposal. As it was already at the stage of writing a business proposal, the production team needed someone to help with the follow-up communication and fulfillment of the contract. Given my experience with the government sector, I was asked to join the team. As most of the work required for this was in its final stage, I only hosted a meeting between the head of the production department and our planning manager. Then, I had to find some relevant material and pass them to the planning manager. Next, I had to remind the planning manager to submit the proposal before the deadline of the submission.
I can still remember vividly that the deadline for the proposal was 5 p.m. I had reminded them twice at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. regarding the urgency of the matter. By the time I left the building, it was already past 4:30 p.m.
I brought the car around and waited outside the office, so that when the proposal was ready and turned over to me, I could start driving towards XinZhuang. It was evening rush hour, and the traffic on Civic Boulevard was further worsened by rain. I was sending righteous thoughts and asked Master for help, because this proposal was of great importance to NTD. Not only could it ease the financial wherewithal of the company, but also allow it to build a relationship with the public sector. Besides, it would raise our brand awareness, which could lay the foundation for continued collaboration.
Although I sped, I did not meet the deadline I did not succeed, as the case officer did not accept the proposal.
I was driving back home in a daze. I was unaware that I had hit someone's car, until that car owner stopped me. The car owner was angry that I had not stopped. Only then did I realize that I had hit someone’s car. As I was apologizing, the SUV driver noticed that I was an old lady and it was raining heavily, so he said not to worry, but to be careful in the future.
On returning home, I called my colleague who was responsible for procurement in a government agency and asked her if the mail room would accept a proposal after the deadline, and I was told that it would not. No one could help.
Given that we are an international company, thus considered part of the international media, we had the opportunity to be selected for the offer. Yet, we didn’t even manage to submit our proposal.
When the chairman heard of this, he was very angry and said, “Something as important as this issue, why did you not ask someone to come along or take a taxi? I felt wronged and wondered why he did not check into the time that I finally got the proposal, instead of criticizing me for the mechanics of the issue, over which I had no control.
Master said,
“Whether you are right or not is, for a cultivator, not important whatsoever. Don’t argue left and right, and don’t emphasize who’s right and who’s wrong. Some people are always stressing that they’re right, but even if you are right, even if you’re not wrong, so what? Have you improved on the basis of the Fa? The very act of using human thinking to stress who’s right and who’s wrong is in itself wrong. That’s because you are then using the logic of ordinary people to evaluate yourself, and using that logic to make demands on others. As gods see it, for a cultivator to be right or wrong in the human world is not important in the least, whereas eliminating the attachments that come from human thinking is important, and it is precisely your managing to eliminate those attachments rooted in your human thinking as you cultivate that counts as important.” (“Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. X)
Only after reading Maser's Fa did I realize that it's not important who’s right or wrong. What is important is that I have to look inside and eliminate an attachment.
Eliminating Jealousy
A colleague and I cooperated for two years. When an organization asked me to introduce NTD, a specific client was one of its main speakers. This is how we met the first time. As our supervisor was not free, she asked this colleague to accompany me to this event. Afterward, this colleague was very active in communicating with him, and I was happy to see her succeeding too. When writing the business proposal, I thought it was fine as long as one of us was taking the lead. I gave her only one suggestion which she did not take into consideration. Despite that we have a shared platform, she often contacted the boss privately via LINE or phone. I tried to protest and demanded that she consider me part of the team, and sometimes she did, but sometimes she didn’t.
She then signed a contract with him but didn’t tell me anything about it. In fact, when she shared her successful cases for the first time, I had already found out about it, but I didn't say anything, waiting for her to tell me about it. However, she never mentioned anything to me. I didn’t know how I could overcome this trial. I had always felt that she owed me, and she should have let me know beforehand about signing a contract.
However, I changed my mind after studied Master’s Fa,
“Disciple asks: I've recognized attachments such as arrogance and jealousy in myself, so why haven't I been able to get rid of them even after a long time?
Teacher: If you truly take these things that seriously, you will be able to restrain them. Then you will be able to weaken them and gradually get rid of them completely. If it's a case where you are aware of it and feel anxious about it, but in practice you don't truly restrain and suppress it, then in reality you are just stopping at this mental activity of seeing and feeling something, but you haven't taken any action to suppress that thing. In other words, you have only thought about it but not actually cultivated and put it into practice.” (“Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005”)
I realized that deeply hidden within me, I still was jealous. On the surface she didn’t acknowledge my work, but the actual reason was because I was jealous of her achievement and getting all the recognition, while I got nothing.
I had not cultivated myself well, no wonder Master said, “If in the course of cultivation jealousy is not given up, one will not attain Righteous Fruition—absolutely not.” (Lecture Seven, Zhuan Falun)
Good Client Relations Are Successful
Keeping a client is not easy. There was a client whom I met at a business expo. Every year for the past four years, when we participated in the expo, I was the account executive. It wasn’t until last year when we finally met the chairman by chance, we exchanged business cards.
We proposed a large deal, since we assumed that they were financially well off. However, I found out that his product still hasn’t been developed, and he used all of his budget on participating in the expo. I kept in contact to maintain a good business relationship. I found out that he had bought Zhuan Falun a long time ago. Although he was of a different faith, he agreed with Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance and understood traditional culture.
I finally found a reason to arrange for another meeting with him by promoting Shen Yun. During our conversation he mentioned Lao Tzu, so I said that Shen Yun performed his story, and gave him a rough description of the dance piece. Immediately he bought two high-priced tickets. When I delivered the tickets, I proposed another small deal. To my surprise, the chairman accepted the proposal, and wanted to give me a good start. Not only did I sell Shen Yun tickets, but also signed a contract.
The account executive told me later that many people wanted this chairman to sign their contracts, but the chairman was not interested, and that I was very lucky. In fact, the client has been watching me, including how I conducted and handled things.
Master said,
“As I have always said, as Dafa disciples your historic missions are simply huge, with you shouldering the responsibility of saving sentient beings. So for sure there is a path that you will be able to walk through to completion. It is a path that has to meet the requirements, and only that way will the sentient beings of the cosmos admire you and not be able to interfere; will your path be free of problems; and will your journey go smoothly.” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XI )
Coordination and Cooperation
In NTD, the news, production, internet, and other departments cooperate well with each other. The first step is the contract brought in by the sales team. Fulfilling a contract is a cumbersome and wearing job. Not all clients are easy to please. These clients are testing your wisdom and attitude.
I remember once when I was filming a program, the wife of the boss kept telling me that her husband has talked too much and so on… I tried to reassure her by telling her that our producer is very professional, and he will edit it well, and to please trust us. They were happy with the final product the first time, and they even invited us to dinner, and said that his friends had seen him on TV the same day when the program was broadcasted.
Another time, when I was working on a news contract, the client wanted all of our raw footage, and also asked us to make a video that is at least 3-minutes long, including some other unreasonable requests. I assured them that we will consider those requests after the video has been edited, as I had faith in our journalists.
Indeed, the news video was very well-made and not a single key point the boss mentioned had been omitted, so that the client was very satisfied after seeing the video, and they forgot about their original requests.
Of course, the news department has principles to uphold too, for example, there was this client who asked us to edit the video as he felt the image was too messy, and since we could make those changes, we made them, and the client was satisfied after those changes were made. However, they again asked to change something else the second time, and since it was not our fault, we had to tactfully deny their request. This required a respectful and a good level of understanding between sales and other departments. Of course, in today’s internet age, we will have to help clients to place some internet ads, and on the whole, we would respect the professionals, and they would help their client to maximize their profit within the budget.
I’m very grateful for the full support from the news production and internet departments. Of course, there is also the behind the scenes efforts contributed by information, engineering, HR, and finance departments.
Master said,
“Whether you're doing things as a group or doing things individually, what you're doing is the same kind of thing, and that's what we mean by one entity. You're all clarifying the truth, sending righteous thoughts, and studying the Fa, so the specifics of the things you're doing are different but the division of roles is orderly, together there's a form, and separated there are particles.” (Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Lantern Festival)
Studying the Fa Well Is Fundamental
The most difficult time in sales are the months where there is not a single signed contract. One feels hopeless.
Master said,
“In cultivation, hardship is not the greatest challenge. Hardship passes after a brief spell, and if it’s not handled well one will nevertheless be clear about things afterwards. What is hardest is to remain consistently disciplined when there is seemingly no hope—that’s the most difficult. Dafa disciples, after thousands—or tens of thousands—of years, what you have sought to do has arrived. If you don’t do well at it, how will you stand before all of this one day?” (“Fa Teaching Given at the NTDTV Meeting,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IX )
Every time, when I read this section of the Fa written by Master, I feel moved and inspired. We can keep going in seemingly hopeless situations, because we are Dafa disciples, and we have the Fa so we can correct ourselves.
To end my sharing, I would like to share one of Master's poems,
Eons of years was the formationFive millennia was the splendor and turmoilHistory has ceased unfoldingFor it was built upon a foundation of creation and extinctionIt is not without hopeThe Lord Creator hasn’t forgotten the world’s peopleBut you must learn the truth in the mazeDafa disciples are the sole hope for people’s salvation (“The Only Hope, Hong Yin III)
(Presented at the 2018 NTD and Epoch Times Fa Conference)
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