Well…a report as promised in my last entry….this afternoon was the 3rd presentation….we went to the headquarters of Mane & Fils to give our most convincing (hopefully) performance yet. After enetering the huge Mane compound, we were escorted to our parking places by two pompiers (firemen- it’s high security at this company-as there are many volatile materials being mass-produced here), and then we were shown into the building to a room marked ‘Auditorium’. It was all so incredibly formal and serious that I was worried that not only were we late, but two members of my team were not going to arrive for another fifteen minutes or so because they were trying to print off a booklet for our presentation on a borrowed colour printer. Tension wa high as we entered the room and our two marketing teachers greeted us and one immediately gave us hell for being late.
Anyway….a long story short….the other team took our place since members of our team were late and their PowerPoint presentation was not only flawless, but brilliant. They chose to represent Apple as an interpretation of the brief (we chose SONY) and everything was perfectly polished and well-researched and organized. At this point I seriously considered vacating the building and /or ‘bowing out gracefully’ because I knew what was to come. In this, I mean- our team. And here I want to be as optimistic as possible and paint the silver lining and so on……..and see downright failure as a chance to learn and grow. Because, to be honest, this is what we did. Not only did we end up with the wrong file for the video prensentation (the one with all the typos, mistakes in layout etc), but…well, I’ll stop there. Put it this way; everything that could go wrong- did. I was so embarrassed, that I had to take deep breaths and resist with all my strength the urge to exit the building and run for home. It was horrifying. *(explanation? members of the team having kids, beng pregnant, or having Italian boyfriends or just not bothering to show up for meetings, language barriers, power struggles- etc. *see below for a further comment on this …)
The good news is that the final final presentation will be Monday night in front of 100 people or so we have a chance to redeem ourselves. My perfume will continue as the perfume in a hair gel application as well as a room fragrance in the form of aroma sticks. Mio, from Japan, will present her perfume as the final contender against the perfume of the other team. (my perfume is just too delicate and fine to compare with the synthetic powerhouses that it’s up against. That said, I am disappointed , but Max Gavarry loves it, so I can live with that endorsement!)
So that’s all….I’m exhausted and full of mixed emotions. Off to bed to let it all soak in and tomorrow I will go to my pottery class and try to pour all the energy into the Zen of Clay.
*here I want to make another comment about ‘passion’. To reiterate, by several prominent and respected people in the industry, I have been told that ‘passion’ is absolutely necessary to be successful in this business. (perhaps any highly specialized arena), and in my 0pinion, this is a perfect example of why. Throughout the Fall term, some students continue to come to school every day, and work and practise and forge ahead in their development. Others, sleep in, go travelling, hang out, and if they do show up, it is late, and because the teachers wait for everyone to come before they begin class, the keen students suffer a loss of instruction time. Another factor, is that most of the time at this school the study is self-directed. This is so that the students can practise the scales, or the raw materials over and over and learn for themselves how to be creative in this medium. (it’s a bit of a lonely art in that way) Obviously, this is not an ideal setting for many! However, it is a great way to know, in one year, if perfumery is the appropriate path for each individual…. The question is- do you love it enough???
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