Hacker's Diary
Page 3
The golden cash boxes were not that far, the gift point, where some of the customers receive gifts due to their large bill and an inclusion of unique high ticket product was by the exit from the store.
As I was instructed, I looked around for the Golden Cash boxes, unfortunately, I haven't found them, so I simply took the effort to ask the girl at the gift-point.
"It’s right there" she pointed with her thin hand to the right, my left. And finally, I saw a raw of specific cash boxes, they were not made out of gold, they were very few and the cashiers that were in charge of them were wearing black shirts. I walked quickly through the raw towards the end of it until I have finally spotted the May.
She was very attractive. Her face features were so well structured that I instantly fell in love with her, however, as I quickly learned, she already had a boyfriend and I was passé. This fact has weakened the flame, however, I still secretly admired her which was obvious to anyone who would pay even a slight amount of attention, however, she did not bother herself to take it to her mind, I simply was there. Later, we were seeing each other on very rare occasions, which I suppose was for mutual good. It never occurred to me to be the third wheel of a carriage, even if it meant to compromise with my own feelings.
"Hello, May?" "Yes. You are Adi?" "Yes, I am." "So, you aren't too good at sales?" "Apparently not, that's the main reason I'm here." "I see, well grab a chair, I will teach you what I can. If you pick a couple of tips from me, it will drastically improve your sales rate, trust me." I smiled and went on to grab a chair from one of the unoccupied cash boxes.
When I came back, she's already serving a client.
As it turns out, some of the returning clients, usually those that fly often, have a membership at the Duty Free. Some of them have a golden membership and they have the privilege to be served without waiting on the queues, at the golden cash boxes.
May smiled to the customer and asked him where is he going, for how long, also she suggested that the packs of chocolate were at a discount, not by simply saying "two for ten" by rather describing the product and giving her advice on how it is a worthy deal.
After the client left, she has noted that to me. "Most of the cashiers there only propose by a short line, outlining the amount and the price. You, however, if you want to be successful in sales, you should give a little bit more information to the client. It influences their decision. For example, let's take these chocolate packs" she lifted two purple chocolate packs from the table "What can you say about them? How can you interest the client in purchasing this deal?" I pondered for a moment, then I said: "I can mention the total weight of the packs, the firm which they came from and I can give my personal advice to buy it because it is after all at a discounted price."
May smiled "Excellent. You probably notice how I tried to warm up the fellow before I pushed him the offer. This small talk is necessary to get closer to the client. They don't perceive you as a stranger anymore and that incredibly increases the chance of them buying from you." "Ok, got it." "If you have any questions ask right away, I will do my best to answer". Being more of an observational learner, I just wanted to note the detail of her successful sales and simply observed the process.
She had three success out of four attempts. "Whenever you propose, don't propose more than two products because the vast amount of choice reduces the possibility of the sale. Also, if the customer buys from you, let's the M&M ask how many packs does he want, they might like the product and the discount so much that they will buy into multiple packs than just one.
Which is good for you as you get some percentage on every sale." "Okay. That is important." "Yep, a bit of talking can make you extra 20 shekels. All you have to do is just make it your habit." I have spent about twenty more minutes watching her sell and after that, the wave had passed and the deputy manager of the golden cash boxes decided to send me back to my original cash box.
When I returned to my place, Ilena approached me once again. "How it was? Did you learn anything?" "Yes, I have learnt a couple of new tricks, like to have small chat with the customer and to tell a little bit more about the product then just two for ten" "Awesome, hope it helps improve your stats" I thought to myself, I hope I will never see you again, but I knew that I probably will and every day, so I just stayed calm, smiled and said "I hope so too".
The rest of the day was mild, however, I managed to have the minimal amount sold to be at the average rate of sales. What a relief.
I and Ximena got a half an hour break almost at the same time. When you as a cashier gets a break, there is always someone who overtakes your place for that very amount of time you are at the break. So, I went on to the kitchen and had sex in front of everyone. I thought about doing that but it never actually got to that.
We just talked and discussed the book I was reading at the time Frankie Boyle "Work, Consume, Die!" quite entertaining I have to admit.
She is a cute girl, but we have little in common, she is shy and labor working while I'm polite, daring and have a dirty mind. Nobody knows of the last one because I'm polite. And, I rather prefer it to stay this way.
There is a huge smoking room that is right next to the dining room. All the Russian ladies who work at the cosmetics department were frequent visitors of that one. Instead of having a snack, they were smoking a fag. To be honest, I can't judge them too much, dead-end job, no perspectives, no motivation to evolve, you rather kill yourself slowly than watch it all over 60 years, you know life length of smokers is at least 10 years shorter than of folks like you and me.
When I got back, the guy who was my substitution for half an hour was excited, he hated his job and even didn't try to hide it, good guy nonetheless.
Then, something interesting happened. Perhaps, it was a sign or simple routine but it got me thinking at the moment, it was just fact. One of the cash boxes in front of me underwent a technical overview. In another word, there was a Russian fifty-something tech guy plugging in a computer mouse and some other device right into the cash box. I was amazed. This screen that we took for granted as a touch screen with a plain program to make simple calculations was, in fact, more than just that, it had a USB! Well, here you might think that I'm crazy or just a computer geek but further on, when the dots will start to come together you will understand why it is such an important moment as it is.
It took the guy about twenty minutes to handle the issue then everything would get to normal. The end of the shift finally approached, I took the cash and stacked it inside the envelope e, bid farewell to the comrades that I knew well enough to feel comfortable to interact with and went to take my transportation back home, then the usual pre-bedding routine and finally sleep.
The next day was a day off. The first month of tedious labor was coming to an end. I already did not have that crazy smiled when I rode home, I was simply tired and confused about why so many people spend so much money on chocolate, tobacco, and alcohol while they could live way healthier and happier lives without.
I went online and looked for colleges and universities in Israel which suggested a B.A. in law. Yep, I was far away from my goal, fair enough, hard work and suffering were my destiny for a couple of years to come unless I could come up with something better.
How I did not despise the programming or server management, I still have been following the news of this industry online.
Silicon Valley and its tech start-ups became the 21 century Olympus of innovation and extreme riches. There was an article about a pet food store that sold out for $3.35 Billion, Chewy. I can't even imagine how much that is in physical money. But, what I can imagine are the yachts and the cars and the mansions it can buy and there will be even enough left for five more generations, so they could buy their own yachts and cars and mansions, as well.
I began to read the story behind the success of the founders and the reason for that deal. Apparently, the founders were two guys who met each other in a chat room. One of them was an a
ffiliate marketer while the other one was a programmer. They had a passion and thought of how to make money off it.
Eventually, they've ended up investing about $200K in their store just about in three years and the entire thing grew into a gigantic monster of 1,500 employees and hundreds of millions of dollars of annual sales. And here, I'm tearing my ass off just to make enough money to get into the law school. Lovely!
They sold out to another pet store and the rest, as I said, it is just a walk in the park of those guys.
Well, I never really envied them, there is no point in that. I admire them and I find it wiser to learn from experiences than to burst in a useless emotion of anger, self-pity, doubt and eventually, sadness. No sir, I am going to give a fight before I sink with this ship.
I went into my Gmail box and checked for the newsletters and forums notifications about new topics that I was signed on.
One of my favorite ones is the Black Hat World. I believed most of them are just kids who like to think of themselves as outcasts of the society and found a way to fuck the system. And to be honest, at times, when I read some of the threads, I thought to myself, what a brilliant idea, even if half of what it says is true, it is ingenious and might be worth a try. However, there was a disappointment within those thread at one form or another. The techniques were either outdated, no complete, too hard to implement or simply not worth the hassle. However, I was lurking in hope to find something that may actually work, even for me.
After noon, I went for a stroll, just to have a break from the screen. Screen at work, screen at home. I even developed some kind of weird eye irritation that my eyes were starting to tear after a prolonged amount of time starring at the screen. Most unpleasant part of it was at work, when I start to serve a customer and cry at the same time, what it may appear to the observer without any logical reason. I laughed at myself in my mind that I take their cash give them all that shit and cry because I know it's not all completely good for them and I'm not at all doing the goods work. Then, I learned to put a napkin in my pocket and simply go over my eyes with it, not to make it way too uncomfortable.
I was wondering the street till I saw an old lady kicking a book, when I noticed her, she stopped kicking it and simply went on her way. I was walking towards the book anyway, so I took what it was. It was a culinary book of some French chef with a lot of pictures and precisely described recipes. The booked looked new, regardless the fact it was brutally kicked a minute ago. I picked the book and turned it to the back cover, it said "Not for sale". I found this very interesting, what author wouldn't like to get his book sold?
Then, I thought and came to a conclusion that it has to be some fancy restaurant recipes book. I decided I was going to take it home and try to cook something out of it, just for gags, and because I got tired of buckwheat and sausages. I continued on my stroll till I finished the junction where I usually turn back. When I got home, I put the book in the closet and promised myself to cook something out of it when I get my salary and enough cash to buy the ingredients.
Then, I went to bed. I needed the energy to carry on with this fucked up situation. I also promised myself not to whine, at least, not outside of my own mind.
The other day was Wednesday and I worked the night shift that day. I slept through the night and woke up to the sounds of the lousy attempts of my neighbor to make an Israeli hit song. I kind of had a huge respect for the guy because he was doing quite well for himself. Doing what he loves, screwing girls in his own flat every now and then. I could testify because I heard the moaning coming from his room every other night.
I bet, he was quite good at it, I mean at screwing because one morning when I went to the bus stop to get to the airport, some young hot looking soldier girl, asked me if I had his number on me, I pretended I don't know who she was talking about. Anyhow, his music, in the most polite terms as I would say, was not my thing. And, there were times I was sorry I had no gun to shoot the speakers off. Anyhow, I woke up and warmed up my favorite meal, buckwheat with sausages.
I looked at the clock and did a swift calculation of how many hours I had till I had to deploy to the pickup station. There was plenty of time. I thought I would take another nap before the work, but my plans went to sink because I already have slept for about 8 hours and my body would not take more sleep even if I tried to force it.
So, I turned on some AC/DC, put on full volume and did a few physical exercises. The good thing about this job is that I lost weight at it. I wasn't at my peak physical condition but yet it was a nice complimentary to the efforts I was making.
After the Back in black has ended and I was all covered with sweat, I took a shower. It is the most pleasant thing to do, second to having an orgasm, I would say. The water is warm flowing over your body washing off all the sweat and stress and doubts and useless thoughts out. After the shower I had, I felt like if I was regenerating and ready to kick ass and take names.
I sat in front of my laptop and yet again glanced at the clock, there were 4 hours to burn. What shall I do? What can I do? What would slum dog millionaire do, if he again was just a slum dog? I had no answer to any of those questions.
So, I did what many of great minds would do in such a situation, and I have always seen myself as a follower of great minds. I took a blank A4 paper and started to brainstorm, I jotted different words, ideas, random thoughts that popped into my mind while holding the question "How do I set myself free?” After about 8 minutes of intense jotting, there was a map, and behold the great magnificent technique proved itself completely useless, none of it made any sense at all.
I resumed to YouTube. Listened to Immigrant by Led Zeppelin and still was staring at this 'piece of art' I just created. When it ended, I mocked the paper and threw it into the bin. Nothing made sense. I felt a slight wave of depression getting a grip on me and when I caught my mind slipping that rout, I took a hold of it and twitted a line "The only thing that separates your dreams from reality is the lack of action" it was something I did when some sort of insight would come into my mind. Now, there was only one question left "What kind of action?”
When I got to the pickup point, I was all dressed in my suit and packed with food for the break, I stood there late in the evening gazing at the small fountain, listening to the water flow, it gave me peace of mind before a long and tedious night work.
The driver has been there on time, as always, these guys did their job well, I had to admit that. At least, I had no complaints to them ever. The evening started to turn into night, the guys who were to my left and to my right during the shift were completely unfamiliar to me and I had no mood to get to know them. I just gazed at the name of the girl right next to me and introduced myself to the girl to my left. Just in case I will need any sealing bags or Russian translator. It appeared to many senior Russian tourists that were coming to visit their families or just for the pilgrimage that many did not know even the basic English. And here is where our Russian speaking ladies and gentlemen came in handy.
Also, there were a lot of Chinese who did not speak English, Hebrew or Russian. Just Mandarin. It's because of that I've learned the Chinese word for passport. Yep, there were no mandarin speakers at our crew. So, we just had to use a sign language, not any of the official ones, just the Israeli one.
We had an extra hour of a break, due to a short period of closing of the store. All the employees spread like birds, each to their own group except few who were admiring solitude like me.
I went to the electronics store at that hour just to browse the web. They did not have any customers but yet they did not close. Employees of the electronic shop were browsing the web themselves on the computers that they were selling. I just overheard two guys and a girl speaking about an old MMORPG I played when I was a teenager. They had a nostalgia. I approached the computer they were using and saw they just played a YouTube video of some "Let's Play" guys. One of the fellows asked if I was playing it too, I said not anymore.
Thursday was coming. I thought more about that idea of creating a game, more like figuring out what is needed to accomplish such a feat and how hard it can be. After all, we all know that Angry Birds made $10 MM in their first year. Quiet impressive for a $1 app. A simple idea that was around for quite a long time on the interwebz and then rehashed into a slick design of birds fighting pigs that lead to a financial success of its creators. This is what I call genius. Even the great Steve Jobs admitted that good artists copy what great artists stole.
I went online and Googled for "How to make a video game?" there were plenty of results, most of them were paid courses, something I did not even consider to be doing. Then, I decided to lunge straight forward and typed in "Video game making software". I've learned that there are two main competitors in that field, which are Unity and Unreal. They have paid and free versions. That's more like it, I thought and browsed through their websites.
I can't explain exactly why, perhaps because of the friendlier website design that I've decided to pick Unity as my try out program. So, I clicked-download and while it was downloading to my computer, I Googled "Learn to build games in Unity" and for my great surprise, they had loads of free tutorials on their website in video form. What a great service! Also, there was a forum and an ongoing contribution within the community. How lovely!