Up, Up and Away...

01/12/2010

I don’t know what it is about flying, but I love it, most of the time.  It was a short flight from Baltimore to Charlotte the other morning, and for the most part a most perfect day for flying.  The second leg from Charlotte to Columbia, SC the same.

I am one of those people who enjoy staring out the window when the ground can be seen from high above in the sky.  To me there is just something very soothing and serene about the earth flowing beneath the aircraft five miles below.  It allows me the perspective, I think, God has of His earth.

Monday I flew down here to welcome my newest sales rep to my company.  The flight, though I did not want to be anywhere close to an airplane on Monday, allowed me to assemble the pieces of who I am and why I am, and what I am about.

This new member of my team is but 25-years old.  For crying out loud, I have pimples on my ass older than that, but nonetheless, it is up to me to bring this young person into the fold.  To do this, it was more than necessary for me to shift into high gear, to get my act together.

It has been about five years since I had a newly employed rep to orient to my business.  I have misplaced more in my memory in that five years than I care to imagine.  What the hell can a 66-year old teach a 25-year old that the 25-year old couldn’t pick up in a week of practical sales in the field?  This, very frankly, is of a huge concern to me.  I don’t wish to let the new rep down, and the thought of being inadequate is more than a blow to my ego than anyone could know.

In the words of that famous Lakota Indian chief, “What the fuck do I do now, coach?”

And that is all I have to say about that…