My Twenty-fifth Company Meeting
02/23/2007
My first love in this life is The Nancy. Following very closely behind is our family and our friends, and then this job of mine. I love my job and I love the people I get to work with –to be more exact, those I interact with but don’t necessarily get to see during the year. I look forward to February of each year, for it is the month of what we used to refer to as a Sales Meeting. These days, in the era of political correctness, this meeting is not referred to simply as The National Company Meeting.
Coming to these “Company Meetings” (where we talk about selling, but it is not in any way to be confused with a “Sales Meeting” where you get to talk about selling) had always made me a tad anxious. Anyway, getting to come to these meetings, which are designed to arm those of us who sell, but are now known as “company people,” with the sales tools (for “companying,” I suppose) and motivate us to go “company” products – is a pure joy these days. I got more hugs than ever before at one of these things, and I think, though not sure I entirely remember, I may have consumed more “daddy” beverages than usual. I must have had a really good time last night because the clock by my bed read 2:38am when I turned off the light. A little side note: I still woke up before 6am, and that bugs me, but proves, once again, God has a sense of humor.
More about hugs…at first I thought these hugs, this simple but wonderful gesture of affection, were exchanged because of the tenure of these friendships and the relationships that have grown through the years. I realize now, however, the only thing that has changed is my attitude toward these people. What was a working relationship to begin with has, as time has passed, grown into a friendship and now can only be expressed as a love affair. It began with me loving me, and that, friends, took some work. Enough of that for now; suffice it to say, I got a lot of hugs.
Meetings, such as this, have a tendency to drag at times. Some of you have probably fought the drowsiness that plagues audiences in meetings that go on for hours without a break. This one was no different, especially for me. Thankfully, I only got caught once nodding off. It never looks good for a manager to fall asleep during these meetings, even old ones such as me.
Did someone say old? I now have less than two years before I enter the age of senility more commonly referred to as the “Senior Years.” Senior Years is kind of like calling a Sales Meeting a Company Meeting. The correct term for one who has reach one’s sixty-fifth birthday is old, elderly, entering the “Golden Years.” Those of us a little on the morbid (albeit honest) side, might term this time of our lives beginning the downhill part. I think it may be the reason the elderly have a Come-to-Jesus with mortality, but this is of little consequence to me now since I won’t be there for 709 days…
Wow! And this started out on such a positive note. Back to the main theme for just a second: The meeting I attended was great. I saw, hugged and got to shed a few tears with really good people that came together for a common cause – to attend a Company Meeting about selling stuff, but it wasn’t a Sales Meeting.
And that’s all I have to say about that…