PENS

Most people know that I’m an avid book collector but only a handful of them knew that I’m also a pen collector. Well, expensive pens that is. To date, I already owned 4 pens. I got the idea of collecting pens when I’m graduating from business school. Back then, I was thinking of how to “reward” myself for milestones and achievements that I’m going to rack up for the rest of my life. For most people, this would be a very easy task. I mean if you are working for somebody, reward would come in the form of increase pay, promotions, and added perks such as corner office. Or if you happen to own a business, probably a vacation trip, a new car, a new house. And this is my dilemma, I’m not working for another organization and therefore, I don’t receive higher pay, or even get promoted at all. As for the vacations, new auto, or house, well, I don’t need to achieve “something” to get those. I needed something “special” and “unique” as a reward. One day, I was watching this movie of Russell Crowe’s entitled, “A Beautiful Mind” and there is this scene that deeply impressed me, a group of brilliant men and women laying down their pens (all Parker pens) on the table in deference to their distinguished colleague that is being honored with a Nobel Prize. I was so enamored with the scene that I said to myself, “Why not pens?” and with that, I bought myself my very first pen, a metallic chrome body with gold clip Parker brand fountain pen to commemorate my graduation from MBA. The pen cost me nearly Php2,000 and I sort of a “regretted” buying the pen because although the pen wrote wonderfully smooth (I use the pens to write and sign checks). The ink easily dried up and it clogs. The latter entails wasting half a cartridge of the expensive ink just to remove the clog. Well, what can I say? First time blues. Since then, I decided not to buy anymore fountain pens. Anyway, my second pen is a gift from my sister, a Mont Blanc sign pen worth something like 14k Philippine currency. Apparently, my sister thinks that I have this expensive hobby of collecting pens (even if by then I only own one pen and my real intention is to just simply “reward” myself) and she wanted to “contribute” to my collection. And so on my 32nd birthday, she gave me that Mont Blanc sign pen. And this pen is by far, my favorite pen. Not only would I sign “important” documents and checks with “The Pen”, I also carry “The Pen” around as someone else would carry around say a Rolex watch except that most people would seem to notice the Rolex watch rather than “The Pen”. The only problem with “The Pen” is that not only the ink is expensive (cost somewhere around P395), it is also hard to buy because there is only one Mont Blanc store in Manila and you have to place an advance order for it and have to wait for “sometime” just to get your supply of ink. With that, I no longer use “The Pen” to sign just any “trivial” documents and checks save for the most important ones. My third pen is also a gift and is also a Mont Blanc pen. My aunt gave me that on my 34th birthday and it is a Mont Blanc ball point pen. Truth to tell, this “Ballpen” and I, doesn’t have much relationship history together. Partly, it is a ball point pen and partly because my 34th birthday isn’t exactly worth remembering. Now, my 4th pen, which I recently bought and gifted myself, a metallic chrome plated Cross sign pen with gold clip. I decided on buying the Cross pen after learning that President Obama used a Cross pen to sign the historic Health Care bill into law. Anyway, I have two reasons as to why I should “reward” myself with this pen. First of all, I closed a “big deal” this year. In the 3 months that this deal is running, it contributed something like 10% of my total annual sales for this year alone and if things went smoothly, it’s going to contribute 50% to my revenue for next year. That reason alone definitely “worth” a pen. My second reason and the most important one is that I also gifted my lady love with the same pen complete with her name engraved on it just like mine. And we both agreed to use those pens of ours to sign our marriage contract/license come May of 2011. Although the document isn’t as historic or even as controversial as the Obama Health Care bill but still the document still calls for a “worthy” pen(s) to sign on it.

P.S. I surely looking forward for my next “pen in the cap” to add to my collections. “ )