Dinner with Colleagues. Man, We're Getting Old.

Two Nights in San Diego #4
Back at the hotel - Wed, 26 Jun 2024, 9pm

This evening my two colleagues and I who traveled to San Diego for a couple of customer visits met for dinner. Perhaps this is what May, my sales colleague, intended when he told me to arrive in time for dinner last night.

Business dinner was nice. The pick of a restaurant was good. The camaraderie was good. The casual format and flow of booze helped loosen up the conversation a bit. I gained some insights I never would have heard during ordinary business hours.

Speaking of the flow of booze... it wasn't as much as you might think. We're all getting older. 😂

First, there was a "social hour" at the hotel 4-5pm with an open bar I had a free pass to as a benefit of my Marriott Lifetime Titanium status. Neither of my colleagues were interested in joining me. They wanted to go back to their rooms before dinner to rest and call their their families. I decided just to rest in my room, too. Wow, "Free beer!" is no longer enough to draw me out.

At dinner we all started with cocktails then ordered more drinks as food arrived. I was the heavy-drinking leader. I had four drinks over the course of two hours. May had three, West had two. (Despite the pseudonyms I'm using, May and West are both men. And none of us are literal lightweights.)

Early in the evening I had suggested that we could enjoy a nightcap at the hotel bar after dinner. As another elite status perk (plus a comp for being assigned an unclean room when I initially checked in) I had four free-drink coupons. May and West were both interested— before dinner. When push came to shove after dinner, though, once again "Free beer!" wasn't enough to draw any of us out. We all bade each other good night after walking back from the restaurant. I've been resting up in my room for the past 45 minutes and figure I'm in for the night now.

Two Customers, Night and Day

Two Nights in San Diego #5
Leaving a meeting - Thu, 27 Jun 2024, 1:30pm

Today I had a few-hours-long meeting with another customer in San Diego. Unlike yesterday's customer meeting it wasn't six hours long. It also wasn't frustrating dealing with a customer who's not as smart as they think they are. That made it like night-and-day different.

At the end of yesterday's meeting (again, six hours!) I asked my colleagues, seriously, "Out of our agreed-up goals going into this meeting, which of them did we actually accomplish?" Because we had some goals that seemed fairly straightforward prior to the meeting but in hindsight they seemed ridiculously ambitious. Whereas after today's much shorter meeting, we left feeling great with confidence that we'd achieved everything we set out to achieve with this customer.

Part of the difference is that bozo factor I mused about yesterday. It's clearer in hindsight with today's comparison that the people we were working yesterday are, on 1-10 scale of "Are they smart and can they get stuff done?" at best a 6. And the problem is they think they're all 9s and 10s. While the people we met today actually are 9s. And, better yet, they aren't cocky about it. (Plenty of 9s and 10s I know are flaming assholes.) I say that having worked with them over the course of 4 years now. I've often complimented them during conversations and have always spoken highly of them to my colleagues. It is refreshing to work with genuinely smart— and nice— people.