198 Paragraphs

You'd better be careful the next time. There are a few subjects he's pretty sensitive about, and the sooner you learn what they are, the better for all of us. If there is one thing he can't stand, it's an overly confident subordinate. Next time, present alternatives. He likes that.

Working with him was the greatest opportunity I've ever had in my working life. I agree with you that he's a demanding boss, but he's fair with everybody. And one thing that I consider very important is that he doesn't expect his people to work long hours. He doesn't let anyone waste time on the job, so it's normal for the work to be done faster.

Don’t let him make you nervous. He likes to make cynical comments during presentations. You’re not the first person he’s fried to unsettle. You’ll get used to it. And besides, the boss knows he’s like that, and he doesn't pay any attention to him.

Do you know how long takes to do something like that? Everybody here seems to think it can be done in no time. If we start today, we'll be lucky to be finished by next week working round the clock.

Our neighbours upstairs keep the tv so loud that our walls vibrate. In fact, if we want to watch a show, we really don’t have to turn up the volume because we can hear the TV upstairs without any problem.

The tribes in East Africa are different from the ones you visited along the west coast. They are not quite as black, perhaps because of the Arabic and Indian influence. Also the tribal customs are completely different. I would say that there's a bigger difference between them than there is in Europe between Swedes and Italians.

Look, if he's going to be there, you can count me out. I can't stand listening to him brag about everyting under the sun. I don't see how the rest of you can get along with him. He's an obnoxious bore.

They went on a Mediterranean cruise to Genoa, Naples, Korfu and Athens. I would've gone with them if I hadn't had the accident in July. When they got back, they showed me the pictures they had taken. They must have taken 500!

He told me he had never here before, but apparently he lied to me. Up to now, I've always trusted him. He's seemed always a honest and trustworthy man. From now on, I'll be more careful with what I say to him.

He was a great man, like all great men, he had his faults, like all the rest of us. His biggest problem was drinking. Whenever things fell short of his expectations, he became terribly depressed and spent months drinking cheap wine. By the time he reached fifty, his liver was already giving him problems.

I'm glad you had a chance to meet Charlie. He's a pretty good fellow, isn't he? We met in the Army and then ran into each other again several years later at a company convention. As it turned out, we had been working in the same company for 15 years without realizing it.

As soon as he had checked into the hotel, he made a couple of telephone calls, one to his brother and another to the person he had an appointment with the following day. Then he went down to the bar of the hotel, had a drink and then he went back up to his room to go to bed.

Well, gentlemen, we've got a problem on our hands. What shall we do about Mr. Smith? He's been a good, reliable employee up to now. I really can't understand what's gotten into him. Only a hopeless lunatic would order 2000 orange tuxedos!

There's got to be an easier way to do this. I've read the instructions over and over again and I still can't believe that this is the only way to do it. Give me a day or two and I'll figure out a shortcut that'll save us a lot of time. I may even try to design an in-house program from scratch. Anything's better than doing it the way the instructions say.

I see you're making a lot of plans but, have you stopped to consider the possibility that your people might not want to carry them out? I don't want to discourage you, but I think you should to consult them before making such important decisions affecting their working lives.

Look, I had three children by the time I was 26 and I had to find whatever was available to support the family. Don't think I took that job because I liked it. On the contrary, I had no choice. I was a matter of eating or not.

Don't scratch your chicken pox. It will leave a scar. Do you want to grow up with scars all over your face and body? Can you see this scar on my check? It was when I had the chicken pox. I was even younger than you are at the time. I couldn't help scratching and so I got a scar.My grandmother had to tie my hands behind to make me stop scratching. It's a good thing she did that because otherwise I'd probably have a few more scars besides this one.

I'd like to ask you a few more questions. I'm sure it's not a problem for you to stay a few more minutes. The job we offer is very important and we want to be completely sure before choosing a candidate

We've been going over the figures on the new construction project and we feel that it's not the right time yet to seek a partner. The last joint venture we got involved in was a fiasco in the end and we're still paying for it. We'd like a couple of more months to see how operations are progressing in general before committing to a new alliance.

It's too bad you couldn't make it to the party. Everyone was there, even the gardener. I think Peter was the first one to pass out, and by midnight, most of us could hardly stay on our feet. I think everybody had a good time though I doubt if many of them remember much about it.

Robert was the son of a millionaire newspaper owner, and was being groomed to follow in his father's footsteps. He attended private schools in Switzerland and got a degree at Oxford followed by a position at a London newspaper. When his father died, he took over the family business. His energy and brilliant strategic thinking quickly made him the leading newpaper publisher in Europe.

You should stay away from dogs like that. I remember when I was your age, I was bitten by a Doberman, and had to have a series of shots. They were not the most pleasant thing in the world. Since then, I've always been afraid of big dogs.

Charles is the most famous anthropologist in the United States. What's strange about his case is that he admits he didn't even know what anthropology was when he first went to the university. He had to take a course in social science and he chose anthropology. It turns out the professor loved his profession and was able to convey his love to others. Charles changed his degree plan in the first month and studied anthropology from then on.

Felipe didn't speak English very well and the poor guy had to attend a cocktail party for company personnel He was introduced to dozens of Americans and they all sais "pleased to meet you" or "good to meet you" or "nice to meet you". Felipe couldn't figure out what it was exactly that they were saying, but he always said back: "Robert Mitchum" and all the Americans seemed pleased with his English and appeared to understand him perfectly.

I don't know why you never say anything to him. Don't you get tired of waiting for him day after day? Ever since I met him, he's never been able to get anywhere on time. I think he does it on purpose. If I had to deal with him as much as you do, I'd do something about it.

I've been asked to give a speech at the Tampa women's club. It's a group of about 200 women who meet once a month for a big luncheon and invite a guest speaker. I'm going to talk to them of a friend of mine who overcame lung cancer and went on to launch a cosmetics business that is now present in over 20 countries around the world. His story is one of perseverance and victory over great odds.

One thing I can't stand about these instructions manuals is that they take for granted that you know electronics before you buy the machine. When I bought mine, I ended up having to pay a fellow to show me how to operate it

These are magic beans. If you plant them in the right kind of soil, they will produce more beans with a sweet flavour ten times more delicious than sugar. For the moment, the only place on the earth where these beans can grow is on the south face of the Himalayas, north of Kathmandu at an altitude of over 14000 feet. There's a special microclimate there because of the protection provided by the mountains. You can find orchids growing at the same altitude.

He's got everything you could want in life. He's got a lifetime income, he's tall and handsome, he's extremely intelligent and he knows how influence people. The only thing he lacks perhaps is a true friend.

Tear it up. It's no longer valid. We'll issue a new diploma changing your first name, and send it to you by overnight mail. You're the first person I've ever met whose official name is Ricky and not Richard. It was natural for us here to think that your real name was Richard and that Ricky was a nickname. Sorry for the mistake but I'll bet you have to correct the same mistake quite a lot.

After he recovered from the illness, he seemed like a different man. He began doing things he had never done before. He started reading great works of literature. I had never seen him open a newspaper, much less a philosophical novel!

Whatever happened to him? The last thing I heard was that he had found a job in South Africa and he was planning to marry a girl there But that was four years ago. Since then, I haven't heard a thing.

There's been a breach in security. Last night someone got into the server and messed up several database files. We'll need a couple of days to get things back the way they were, but I'm worried about how it happened. Whoever it was, could've destroyed more than a year's work.

The play was a resounding success. Tom Keller wrote a two-column review in the Chicago Tribune praising the cast and direction. I wasn't there but I'm planning to go this evening if I can get a ticket. I'm really glad Jennifer's gotten the recognition she deserves. I personally think she's the best female stage director in this country.

We're out of stock. We ordered over a thousand new books three months ago and we still haven't received them. The book was written up in a popular news magazine a couple of weeks ago and we've received a lot of new orders we can't fill. I'd guess we've lost over three thousand euros in sales in just two weeks. I imagine we can fill many of those orders once the books are in stock but some of them will be lost sales opportunities.

During the war between the United States and England Sam Wilson, from New Hampshire, supplied the American army with beef. At that time, America was not often referred to as the United States, so when Sam marked his barrels of army meat with a big US, not everyone was sure what it meant. When a federal inspector asked a watchman why US was marked on the barrels, the watchman made a guess: I think it means Uncle Sam. Thus was a legend made.

The secret of borrowing money is understanding how the bankers view the world. When you've learn to answer all your banker's questions in accounting terms, which is the banker's native language, you're a lot more likely to get the loan you need to survive the rapid growth of your business. Bankers appreciate business owners who have a command of the financial side of the business.

I think my father never finished reading a single novel in his life. He just didn't have the patience to read 200 pages or more. When I was a kid, I was like him. I never had the time or patience to sit down and read something. The weather was always nice outside, and that's where I wanted to be, playing with friends up and down the street. But then, the old lady who lived nex door gave me a book called "The House on the Cliff", a detective story with two teenagers called the Hardy Boys. Even since then, my life has never been the same.

Don't let it depress you.You'll get used to it. When I got here, it took me at least a year to get used to the food. Now I like it. One thing I've never gotten used to although is the way the guards treat us. It's really humiliating.

Although he's not as famous as Geronimo, Sitting Bull or Crazy Horse, my favourite indian chief was Red Cloud. He became the most important war leader of the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes during the 1860's. In fact, he was Sitting Bull inspiration. He managed to close the Bizeman Trail for over a year, the trail used by white settlers in their way to Washington and Oregon. He was one of the few indians to win an armed conflict against the US army.

We're glad to know that everything is arranged. We'll be arriving on the 3rd. We originally intended to stay at the Palace Hotel, but since it's being remodelled at the present time, we've decided to leave that decision up to you. Let us know as soon as you've made reservations

If I had to stop the clock at any age during my life up to now, I would stop it right now, at age 67. I'm retired,I don't have a bos, my finantial security is covered, I can do more or less whatever I please, I'm no longer bothered by strong sex drive, I have time to travel, and time to enjoy those small pleasures of life that we don't have the time, patience or intellect tobenjoy at younger ages. Finally, I have grandchildren that I can enjoy but whom I don't have to raise.

Don't go too close to the leopard cage. A few months ago a little boy tried to feed the leopard some peanuts and the animal ate the peanuts together with the boy's hand. The local authorities debated whether to kill the leopard but finally decided that the mother would be the one to kill if it were possible. She had picked up her son and held him out so that he could get his hand close enough to the leopard to feed it.

Would you rather be able to fly like Peter Pan or turn invisible? I often ask this question to job candidates because it tells me a little about their character. If they say they'd rather be able to fly like Peter Pan then I consider them more innocent, adventurous, and candid. If they say they'd rather be able to turn invisible, then I consider them the shrewd secretive types.

I remember that her last name was Ashley and when I learned that she was living in Naples I thought it wouldn't be too difficult to find her. We had spent two intense weeks together thirty years ago so I didn't know what I would find. My internet search however didn't turn up anything in Naples except a beauty salon called Ashley. I called the beauty salon, but they assured me that they knew no one by the name of Sarah Ashley.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me begin by saying that Consolidated Airlines has never been in better shape to face the challenges of the twenty-first century. We now control 127 major air routes and have landing rights in 187 major airports around the world. Eighty seven per cent of our fleet of 237 large and medium-sized jets are less than six years old and, in my opinion, we have the most professional managerial staff in the industry.

Charismatic people are easily intrigued and carried away by new ideas, but experience has taught them to make decisions based on balanced information, not just emotions. When trying to persuade a charismatic person, resist the urge to join in his excitement. Focus the discussion on results. Make simple and straightforward arguments, and use visual aids to stress the features and benefits of your proposal.

The flight was delayed in New York because early morning fog. That’s why I wasn’t be able to connect in London with the flight to Rome. I got to the gate 10 minutes late, TWA got me onto a later flight and paid for my dinner at the London Airport.

The chief engineer didn’t seem convinced. He had never worked with an Italian supplier and he was afraid that strikes could delay shipments and cause production problems in Germany. Carlo assured him that the company had suffered only one strike in ten years. He went on to explain that the factory workers in the company were paid well above the going rate in the area. He added that he spent a lot of time with the workers and was proud of the spirit and collaboration on the factory floor.

He’s the star of the basketball team and is going out with the cutest girl in the school. His grades aren’t too good, but all the teachers adore him. He’s tall, handsome, extremely courteous to everyone, even to students in lower classes or who don’t excel in sports. The teachers will probably give him even worse grades if they weren’t so charmed by his personality.

If you want to speak English truly well, you must be able to employ the grammar backwards and forwards with total ease. Irregular verbs must be automatic, verb tenses must be as easy as adding simple numbers in your head, and auxiliary verbs must come up right the first time and quickly. If you’re not agile with the grammar, then you must practice simple but relevant forms every day. You must say 300 hundred sentences a day in different grammatical constructions.

He was 34 years old and he hadn't had a serious relationship with a woman since he was 27. At that time, he was engaged to a girl from Hannover, but two months before they were supposed to get married, she died in a traffic accident. Since then, he had tried to forget the loss by devoting himself totally to his job at Mercedes Benz.

I wonder what the world would be like if everyone spoke the same language. I really don’t think it would be much different than it is today. You know, the Arabs all speak the same language and, as far as I know, they’ve never been able to get along each other very well.

Tomorrow's reality is created by today's imagination. The worls has a way of giving you what you deserves. If you are frightened and look for failure and poverty, you'lle get them, no matter how hard you may try to succeed. Lack of faith in yourself, in what life will do for you, cuts you off from the good things in the world. Expect victory and you make victory.

It's been one hell of a week and I can't wait for the CEO, CFO and COO to get out of town. They've been roaming the halls of our departement on and off for the last five, taking notes, observing procedures, and huddling in the conference room for meetings. It's starting to make everyone really paranoid because we don't know what's going on.

You'll see as you get older that the more you try to please people, the less they'll appreciate it. I've learned that over the years and I've never known any real exception. It's something I've never been able to understand.

Now that you've reached your goal and you are the CEO of a large organization, I think it's time to gave you a simple piece of advice. You need to quit bitting your nails and let them grow enough so that ypu get a decent manicure. Part of your job from now on will be to deal with the press, with the politicians, and with other people both inside and outside of the organization whom you haven't dealt with up to now. The image you project is much more important now than before.

I'm a believer in learning how to "fly by the seat of your pants", that is, intuitivily. Pilots flew this way before sophisticated flight instruments. I'm convinced you must practice speaking and thinking spontaneously. You can't imagine how many times my ability to do this has saved me from losing a client. I'm not suggesting that you should make a habit of it, just that you might want to practice it in case you find yourself in a tight spot without an ejection button.

Listen. You've got to make a bigger effort to understand the teacher's explanations in class. You've got to try and do the homework on your own, because the more I help you with it, the less you'll be able to solve problems using your own abilities.

I like the guy. He's always looking for ways to make the office more efficient. For the first 10 or 12 years, he had no employees and he spent a lot of time in the field selling. Because of this, he was forced to design super efficient office processes to make sure the work was done. Now he has over15 people working for him, but he's never abandoned the philosophy of an efficient, streamlined office.

Once I was riding with a distribution representative from Walco and he told me something I've never forgotten. In fact, I still laugh when I think abou it. He made a quick call to a customer and a song was palying on the radio. When he got back in his car that same song was palying still and hecalled it a radio call. What a crack up that guay was!

As soon as you pick up your baggage and pass through Customs, look for a rather short man who'll be holding a sign with your name on it. That's one of our drivers and he'll take you to your hotel. The same fellow will be at the hotel at 7.30 the next morning to bring you to the office.

The teacher came into the room carrying a lot of books. He put them on a small desk in front of the class and then wrote his name on the board. Li didn’t know what the teacher was writing because he didn’t the English or Latin alphabet. It looked like strange symbols to him. Then the teacher turned to face the class and said something, pointing to himself. Li assumed that the teacher was saying his own name.

Listen, I can find a job for you daughter in a lot of companies where she’ll be able to put her Advertising degree to good use. But she insists on working in an advertising agency and right now they’re not hiring. I could get her into the PR department of a cosmetocs firm or marketing department of a pharmaceutical company. She needs to be a bit more flexible. If she wants an ad agency and only an ad agency, then she’ll have to wait until the recession is over and who knows when that will happen?

One of the biggest problems we face is law enforcement.We have a wonderful government that passes new laws every day,but I thik they’re finally starting to find out that passing laws is a lot easier than enforcing them.Very few people obey the law out of a sense of duty.

I envy people who can manage to keep their desk clean and tidy.I know a general manager of one company whose desk never has a single item or piece of paper on it, not even a computer.If you’re with him and he needs to write something down, he opens a drawer, takes out a little piece of white paper, writes a few words and puts the piece of paper in his right jacket pocket. What he does with it after that, I have no idea.

I promise that if all of you can meet pour projections, I’ll treat you to a big steak dinner at The North Star.The odds are against you, but miracles have happened before and there’s a chance they can happen again. I would love nothing more than to eat ajuicy filet with you!

What would you have done if it had happened to you? It`s always easy to second guess people after the fact. If I knew beforehand what my boss' reactions would be to my proposals, I'd really have my ammunition ready.

Don’t expect Maria to follow your advice. I’ve known her for ages and she’s never once followed any advice of mine. She’s pathologically independent and likes to assert this fact. When she needs to make an important decision, she often consults a lot of people, but she usually ends up designing her own solution.

At the last place I worked, my boss thought I was a terrific presenter, and I felt so much more confident than I do now. I used to do really entertaining presentations, promoting our strengths in quality control and customer service. As a result, we had more prospective clients than we could deal with. Now, I can't talk anyone into trying us out.

I really hope I don't have to attend another meeting this week. In this company they just go on and on without any structure. I spend half of my time doodling on my notepad and the other half writing my 'to do' list for the week. The poor woman who has to take and write up the minutes must be suicidal. It is ridiculous, but I might call a meeting to speak about our meetings.

Growing up is not easy for most kids these days. I remember when I was young, moral values were more much established than they are today, or at least they seemed that way. I try to raise my children right, but there are much many outside factors that influence them.

To most people, the phrase 'estate transfer' means after death. It brings us images of wills, funerals, lawyers, and family conferences. But this is only one side of the coin. 'Lifetime transfers', that is, passing your estate to your family while you are still alive, is just as important as giving after death. It has advantages to the whole family, both economic and personal.

I've taken on a lot of extra work lately and I'm starting to get frustrated. In fact, I've taken on so many things that I'm probably going to have to take on an assistant. I've always been ambitious, but the problem is that I'm turning into a workalcoholic and my doctor says that working so many hours is detrimental to my health.

I'm so glad I don't work in the Financial Department. The Director is a tyrant, and seems to spend all of his time huffing and puffing and shouting at his staff. It can't be a productive way to work. He banged his desk with his fist so hard yesterday that I jumped out of my skin. His staff must be used to him, though, as they didn't bat an eyelid. They just carried on working.

Even though they knew I didn't know anything about the project, they called me into the meeting to find out my opinion. Since I wasn't too well informed on the subject, I gave the best opinion I could under the circumstances. I felt pretty embarrassed despite the fact that they seemed to appreciate my point of view quite a lot.

When the psychologist told the military instructors that their students would respond better to praise than to ridicule, the instructors were totally against the advice. They said that whenever they praised a pilot for a perfect landing, the next landing was worse, and that every time they shouted at a pilot for a horrible landing, the next one was better. The psycholgist answered that ehen a pilot made a perfect landing, the next one would almost always be worse, regardless to praise or ridicule. Likewise, a horrible landing would almost always be followed by a better one, no matter what you do.

Everyone keeps dumping paperworks on my desk. They all think I’m their personal secretary. How many times do I need to remind them that I’m handling the administrative workload of 8 sales reps and 3 managers? Yesterday I came really close to losing my temper when Jerry asked me if I could proofread and print out his proposals before the meeting at 5. Just who does he think he is?

I couldn’t believe it when she told me she’d lost her job. She’d been in the firm for over 20 years and was only 3 years away from retirement when the let her go. She was almost in tears when she told me about it on the phone. I knew we hadn’t been doing well lately, but had no idea the Board of Directors was going to take such ruthless measures. I’d bettet start updating my resume. I could be next in line.

Listen, John, we've got to find a way to absorb the noise in the general office area. The acoustics are terrible and when everyone's on the phone, the noise bounces off the floor, walls and ceiling like crazy ping-pong balls. Couldn't a few rugs on the floor and maybe an additional plant or two reduce some of the noise?

Every time I mention my vacation request to him, he freaks out. Does he really expect me to work 365 days a year? If I don't take some time off for my wife and kids this summer they'll be so disappointed. Judy is threatening to take them home to Vancouver because she doesn't want the same thing to happen this year. Spending last summer in Buffalo was depressing.

The online shopping segment of our website is outdated. It’s big on style but short on substance and user-friendly instructions. I tested it out last night and by the time I got thorough typing in all my preferences, personal data, and credit card stuff, I forgot the item number and color code of the very thing I was buying.

Have you ever heard of Ohio? Yes, it's a state, but at my last sales meeting, one guy told us to remember Only Handle It Once as an acronym for dealing with paperwork and emails more effectively. The idea is to handle each piece or task as much as you can at the time and thereby avoid the need to Handle It Twice. I guess OHIO sounds better than HIT.

The online shopping segment of our website is outdated. It’s big on style but short on substance and user-friendly instructions. I tested it out last night and by the time I got thorough typing in all my preferences, personal data, and credit card stuff, I forgot the item number and color code of the very thing I was buying.

My first real job after graduating from college was as a sales representative with a check printing company, the largest in the world at the time. Iʼve often wondered what's happened to it in recent years. The ATM and internet banking technologies have to have hurt their financial document business. I hope they anticipated the future and joined the paperless revolution.

He has the most contagious laugh I've ever heard. I've forbidden my people to tell jokes in the office because once he starts laughing, everybody else, including me, can't keep a straight face. In fact, it's starting to affect our performance on the job.

Sam is a super salesman and he only sells green eggs and ham. To get his customers to buy green eggs and ham he asks them no less than 16 times to try them. Sam knows that the average sale is made when the customer has been asked five times whether he would like to examine a product. The average salesperson will ask only twice. So, I suggest you talk to your salespeople about Sam the super salesman.

Can you believe he didn't even call us to tell us that he had cancelled the meeting? If he doesn't cancel them he postpones them and my people are starting to get mad about the situation.

If I had known you were going to make a mistake like that, I would never have sent you to Tokio. I couldn't believe when they told me. Do you realize how much business we could lose because of this?

I'm sorry to interrupt but I've got Ted Robinson on the phone and he's furious about the price increase on the K-models. He says he wasn't informed and that he's already given his word to over 10 new costumers in the last three weeks. He's asking us to honour the old price until the end of March. That's only a month and a half away, but if the other territory managers find out, we could have a problem on hour hands.

• If I had a nickel for every time she said 'uh' in her presentation, I might have about 5 bucks in my pocket, and that's after just 15 minutes!
• I think I counted more than sixty, and it's possible there were more. It's a hard habit to break, I know, but she's on the board and has to speak in public so much that she should have conquered the problem by now.

I think you'd look a lot better if you shaved that horrible moustache. I know you think it makes you look older and more mature, but if you want to know my opinion, the only thing it does is make you look like all the other men with moustaches

Here's the raw data you asked for. You'll need to go over it, familiarize yourself with it, understand the connections between different kinds of information, and then design a database to enter the data so that it can be processed in an understandable and relevant way. I know it's a big task, but that's what you were hired for. This company has reached a size in which it needs a more professional control and information system and you're the person we've chosen to do it.

No one could even come close to what you've accomplished in our department. When you started with us, personal computer didn`t even exist. Do you remember all of those electric typewriters we couldn't get rid of when we replaced them with PCs? You taught each and every one of us not only hpw to turn them on, but to learn to communicate via email. You're nothing short of a miracle worker, my friend.

Figures can tell a dramatic story of success or failure, and I'm happy to say that the figures I'm going to reveal to you today represent good news for all of us. As in recent years, we have once again surpassed our estimated goals.

There's a law in real estate that says if you willingly allow a neighbor to cut across the corner of your property for a certain number of years, then the neighbor ultimately gains a legal right to that corner and can no longer be barred forom using the shortcut. The willful and ongoing lack of action by the landowner is interpreted by the courts to be implied permission. This can also happen to an author who has never taken action to enforce his copyrights.