Back in the Phone Booth

When everything “crashed” with the boys from Ireland, I needed to do something quickly. This all happened on an early fight back from Calgary on a Friday morning.
As soon as I landed I picked up the telephone and called my old boss at Bell. I told him my wife was tired of me traveling all the time and would they have any interest in me. He said, “Give me a number that I can reach you at, and I will get back to you in a couple of hours.” He called back and I went back to work for the Telephone Company the next Monday, for twice the salary I had left at…two years earlier.

Well, there had been some changes at Bell while I was gone…they were attempting to create teams of specialists to work specific industries. My new title was National Account Manager, and I was responsible for five Fortune 500 Companies in the heavy equipment area…I was also responsible for about twenty smaller companies that were also involved either in the manufacturing or distribution of heavy equipment. The thing that didn’t change was I was still in sales…not management. They were becoming much more professional and sophisticated in their approach to customers. They were now clients and each National Account Manager had to go through some rigorous training that if successfully completed would end up in the title of Certified Industry Consultant.

My good friend (the only one that I considered competition at Bell) and I were determined to be the first in the Country to get through certification. We were a real pair (both fiercely driven…but with styles as different as ‘day and night’. He was the hammer and I was the velvet glove. Bobby was my very best friend at Bell…we took our sons to their first Twins game, did outings together, and went out to dinner with our wives (who really did not like each other). But we were competitive as hell…it didn’t really matter which one finished first and which finished second…but we had to be the top two each year! For the next few years we got all the fancy TV’s, trips and awards…either he as number one and me a close number two, or the other way around.

We had some good times for awhile…

Everything that I have written in these postings is the absolute truth…”give or take a lie or two!”

Until next time…