Nap Time Produces an Unassuming Sales Ma-Chine


sales machine

Cartoons sometimes present themselves and you don’t really know why or how or if they’re even funny. This was one of those.

It popped into my head pretty much fully formed, but it was so odd that I ran it past my wife at dinner. I performed it with heavy accenting on the “chine” part of “machine” and she laughed and liked it a lot.

But, like the good cartoon editor she is, she asked, “How are you going to get that inflection across?”

She was right. That little oomph at the end of “machine” helped the cartoon a lot. I tried writing “ma-CHINE,” “ma-chine” and even “ma-sheeeen” before I landed on the simpler overall italics.

It’s hard to know if people will read it the way I heard it, but I think it still works.

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Mark Anderson Mark Anderson's cartoons appear in publications including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. His business cartoons are available for licensing at his website, Andertoons.com.

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  1. I can relate. I like to rest A LOT. But then I work on full speed when I am working. Even people are amazed on how many words I can type in such a short time. I work at full speed and then get my well deserved rest.

    • I’m the opposite. I think my brain’s more active when I’m actually sleeping! I dream A LOT. I’m less active when I’m conscious; tend to go at a casual pace, kinda like I’m resting when I’m awake ‘cos of all the dreaming.

      • Haha! You’re like my sister. She is often surprised when I talk to her about the way I work. I guess we just work in different ways.

      • We definitely do work in different ways, and I guess the importance is to take note of those differences. embrace/accept them if we can and use it to bring out the best in ourselves in our day-to-day.

        (p.s.: I woke up not too long ago!)