Listen to the classic tale “The Bottle Imp” by Robert Louis Stevenson. The hero Keawe purchases a bottle that holds a magical imp. The imp will grant any wish of Keawe’s, but if he should die while still the owner of the bottle, he will burn in hell for eternity. Keawe has the right to sell the bottle but it must always be sold for less than what was paid for it.

For some time Keawe enjoys a rich and prosperous life. He then falls in love with the beautiful Kokua and now does not want to relinquish his soul.

His attempts to get rid of the bottle are described in the story. Finally the heroine purchases the bottle anonymously to save her husband’s soul – the price has now reached such a low figure that she will not be able to sell it to anyone. The hero is joyous that he has got rid of the Imp … only to learn that his beloved wife has the bottle.

An unexpected ending occurs when a drunken sailor robs the bottled imp and runs away … accepting the damnation of his soul in exchange for the riches the Imp gives him … thus freeing the souls of the hero and heroine, who live happily ever after.

Now imagine the wonders that a Manager could produce if he had a bottle Imp with him. Hear the travails of Manager David. David was brilliant, intelligent, hard-working, committed and enthusiastic about his Career. He wanted to advance fast and get rewards, awards and promotions at Internet speed.

David was the master of a mischievous Imp who was a hard taskmaster. David and his Imp entered into a deal. In return for fast Career Growth and great financial gains, David would have to forsake any life outside of his business and office. He would have to spend all the hours that God sent working for his business.

All was well for the first 7 years of David’s career. Then Maria entered his life. She came in as a breeze from heaven. She worked as a junior engineer on one of his software projects. Togetherness in the form of late debugging nights, long drives to drop Maria home after work, design arguments with her brilliant quick mind … worked their magic.

David felt the chemistry work between them. Now David wanted to spend all his waking hours with Maria … out of the office, too! David married Maria and started living a satisfactory personal life.

Of course the bottle Imp was angry for David’s desertion and tried his best to destroy David’s career prospects. But could he affect adversely a career that he had promoted for the past 7 years?

While under the influence of the Imp, David had spent a lot of effort developing critical skills: verbal and written communication, relationship building, negotiating, empathy. David was master at the fine arts of listening, asking questions and tailoring his offering to meet customer’s needs.

Moreover 7 years of building customer relationships, employee rapport and top management confidence could not be negated in the twinkling of an eye … as the bottle imp desired.

David’s current customers continued to trust and value David for his consultancy and customer service attitude. They continued to give David repeat orders of greater and greater magnitude. They also gave very good referrals to other friends who then contacted David for solutions.

David had good rapport with his staff members and knew how to create winning teams, he was himself a good team leader and manager, he had trained his staff to be good team members. Thus the projects that the customers requested David to execute were completed ahead of time, with less cost than estimated and with great quality. This in turn helped turn the wheels of David’s good fortune.

All of us have an Imp bottled inside us and like David we can also make the best use of this Imp. We have within us a somewhat mischievous, playful Inner Being who wants more than anything to align with the Abundance prevalent in the Universe. This Imp can lead us from one success to another… once we know how to harness its power.

Receive the Fr^ee email course “Success comes From Within” to learn how to tap into this ever-present resource available to each one of us. The exercises will be a great help to you.

You need to heighten the positive benefits of your Inner Being … Your Imp. Learn 10 Quick and Easy Ways detailed in “Project Serenity – How to gain happiness and peace”.

Naseem Mariam is the editor of “Management that Soars” Newsletter & author of “Project Serenity – How to gain happiness and peace”. Her ritings draw life from her 18 years experience as software Project Manager. Let her guide you towards Faster All Round Success and a Stress Free, Joyous Life. Her free ebook and Newsletter tell You How. Subscribe with mailto:projectdioxide@sendfree.com Visit her at http://www.123projectmanagement.com