The Certainty of Chance

Some days ago, I was summoned by my managers to the head office for a meeting. The main reason for this was to meet "The Big Cheese". The guy with the purse strings.

When you work for a large organisation, you rarely get to meet the people who essentially can hold your fate in their hands, especially when you're at the bottom of the heap. Not that I was actually bothered by this, but at least it gave me an opportunity to stop by the bank on my way to cash in my coppers in their handy sorting machine.

After the usual babbling about trivial crap that basically had the net result of us getting lumped with more work in order to cut costs, Big Boss strode into the room with his corporate haircut and business speak. The words filtered through my skull as I instead stared at the clock as it ticked past four. Thanks for the hard work, emphasis on how times will be tough for all of us in the coming months. All of us? Yeah, right.

What I did wonder, though, was how somebody gets to the position where they earn a huge fuck-off salary, an air condition office for themselves and a PA to pretty much organise their working life. Do you actually have to work hard, get lucky or kiss a biblically huge amount of arse? Or a combination of all three?

In turn, this led me to consider how some bands or artists are less successful than others, in terms of recognition. The Chameleons, for example, seem to me to have all the power and passion of U2, but without the pious bollocks spouted by Bono at any given opportunity. Did they not 'play the game' like U2, or was it just a succession of bad luck/choices?

Of course, recognition isn't what any creative person should be seeking, first or foremost, but I'd imagine it certainly helps when the rent needs paid.