What does a businessman need to be successful? Kayla can name the fundamentals, though her knowledge stemmed from textbooks and lectures from her time in college. She was definitely still a young green grass, but, even she knows how absurd her boss’s way to achieve was, frustratingly so.
From the start she worked with the man her head kept throbbing, pondering how it is he managed to reach success with his unreliable ways. It broke her understanding and common sense. More than a dozen times she found herself thinking how the business thrived instead of doing her actual work and then ending up with a headache she caused herself, which got her into the calming art of appreciating tea. It was one such routine that she was in when her colleague greeted her.
“Oh Kayla, how is our secretary-in-charge doing this fine day.” A man in a grey suit
“Jed. You people are never stopping calling me the secretary are you.” Kayla acknowledges the man, a slight twitch in her face.
“You might as well be,” Jed placed a stack of folders on the desk. “You’re literally doing more than your job entails. I think Enriquez is probably not looking for an official secretary anymore since he has you doing it now.”
“Well I do not agree! This is not what I signed up for.” Kayla grimaces.
“And yet your sitting on the same desk the secretary is supposed to be using.” Jed raised an eyebrow.
Kayla could only sigh. “Mr. Enriquez has no one officially hired for the position, so for the time being at his behest I fill in the gap until further notice.”
Kayla would have complained if it were not for the additional salary for the extra work as a fill-in for the position on top of her usual salary. She was doing two jobs, but she gets paid twice and both also had a nice overtime pay. Her main work in the office was something she could easily do and the other was even more so since her boss was not so hard to please with her work performance.
Still it nagged her, it was nearing half a year since she was the unofficial secretary and no one had been hired for the position. As generous as the extra pay was, she still preferred doing her main work and not undertaking a task not explicitly meant for someone else.
RING! RING! RING!
The phone rang interrupting her moment thoughts. She picked up the phone while Jed stood and waited for her, it seemed he still had more to discuss.
“Yes, hello? This is the office of CEO Mr. Enriquez of the Marlvar Corporation. This is his sect---ah, assistant speaking.” Kayla faltered on the last part of her words when Jed gave her a teasing smirk. She glared at him and continued with her conversation professionally.
“Yes. Uh-huh. Yes, we’ve been expecting you. Not yet, but he’ll be back later today from his business trip. What time? Late afternoon. Yes, I will inform him.”
“Who was it?” Jed asked curiously.
“It’s that foreign company from Japan that we’re having a partnership with,” Kayla explains as she began writing notes on a notebook on one hand and looking over her phone contacts on the other. “Mr. Enriquez had an appointment before but it clashed with both their schedules so it got delayed until now.”
Jed blinked. “Wait, are you saying this is an impromptu meeting with a big partner right now and your setting it up only now.”
“Yes.”
“But the boss isn’t here yet---“
“Well now he is!” A loud jovial voice called out to them.
Kayla and Jed both looked at the elevator that opened as a man in a black suit came out. He strode towards them casually yet there was a sense of charisma that made it seem alright since he was higher on the ladder. Well he definitely is since it was their boss Mr. Enriquez.
“Jed. Kayla, good to see you both again!” Mr. Enriquez spread his arms wide as if to hug them but he did not.
“Sir!”
“Boss!”
Kayla hurriedly got up and moved to open the door towards her superior’s office while Jed stood aside and nodded as he called him formally, unlike his previous sloppy reference. Mr. Enriquez smile at them as he always did and walked inside while gesturing for a pair of two men carrying a large box to follow.
“Sir? This is?” Kayla noticed the big box being carried inside and realized with a familiar feeling to what it’s contents might possibly be already. After the directing the two men to place the box at the center of the room Mr. Enriquez waved them to go.
Mr. Enriquez turned to look at Kayla and Jed, who ended up following inside despite the confusion on his face as to why he went in as well. Around the office the decorations were not what most would expect to find in a typical office workspace.
Jed looked around at the various knickknacks; dream catchers, a jade Buddha, a gold cat waving it’s paw, that tiny Feng Shui mirror, amulets with strange symbols, there were more that he could not name.
“Guess what I brought this time.” Mr. Enriquez grinned as he tested them.
“Another good luck charm.” Kayla smiled stiffly. This was exactly what made her mind spin in circles regarding her boss. His collection of “charms” that was, according to him his reason for succeeding in business.
“Of course! Behold!” Mr. Enriquez grandly pull a string and the box fell flat on four sides to reveal it’s contents.
It was a statue. A depiction of a half-man half-elephant, the head being an elephant while the rest of the body was that of a big man sitting in a meditative posture. It had four arms which all were in various poses of hand gestures in meditation. The intricate details were also decorated with gold accessories, a gold crown on the head, rings and bracelets.
“Wow.” Jed simply said, eyeing the gold accessories in particular. Knowing their boss, the were probably real gold on stone.
Mr. Enriquez gestured at the statue. “This is Ganesha!” He introduced the name. “He is the Indian god that brings good fortune and destroys obstacles! With this, business will thrive even more for Marlvar!”
Kayla knew about his almost obsession with charms, still she glanced at Jed who gave an inquisitive look, but merely shrugged, not too invested in questioning their boss’s sentiments.
“Weren’t you catholic?” Jed asked uncertainly.
“Man takes power from anything as long as it helps, God is anything as long as it’s good.” Mr. Enriquez simply said.
“I don’t think…. that’s how religion works,” Jed muttered.
Kayla cleared her throat. “Anyway, sir you have an appointment with a foreign partner of ours later. I’ve just begun booking a nice restaurant when you came for your meeting.”
“Great job Kayla! Now we can test the luck blessing from dear Ganesha here!” Mr. Enriquez stroked the statue reverently.
Kayla could only open her mouth and closing it again. She still was not used to his unbiased belief in the power of supernatural charms no matter how long she had been working for him. And for some reason she still could not help but question and think about it as unnecessary as it is to her.
Jed coughed. “Well, I guess I should go now.” He left the somehow awkward atmosphere.
Kayla glance at Jed’s retreating back and after a moments conflict decided to be brave and asks what she always wondered about. “Sir are you sure your success was really thanks to all these, things.” She waved her hand around the wide variety of charms that decorated the office.
Mr. Enriquez looked at her straight at her eyes, for a moment she felt she might have overstepped her bounds. “Miss Kayla, do you know how I managed to keep growing this business?”
Kayla silently swallowed, not sure where this conversation as going.
“Skill, education, connections, capital and other things would always be nothing against the face of the intangible higher power.” He solemnly declared, as if preaching to her a crumb of universal truth. But that was it. He did not elaborate further.
Kayla was thus left yet again to her usual routine. Doing her job while also acting as the hopefully temporary secretary. Her questions that confuse her only continue to ever grow when upon hearing the that the success of the meeting was contributed by the unneeded knowledge that their foreign business partner had also their own fondness for India, albeit slightly different as it focused on the concept of enlightenment.
It had her wondering if Mr. Enriquez was sincerely relying more on his unfounded belief on charms and luck or if this was just a cover-up for his cunning in getting the statue to find a common ground to talk with.