Busy Signals

I finished first the year that the company Awards & Recognition were in Scottsdale. We all were invited to a “black tie” event and we all had the usual “penguin outfits”. Not Bob, no he opted for white silk complete with long tails and a top hat. He was my hero! One other highlight of this trip was the dinner at Pinnacle Pete’s…the executives told us that it was semi-formal so wear suits and our very best ties. Bob and I were really into designer ties at this time and we each wore our favorite, only to find out that this was the place that cut the ties off at the knot. At the end of the evening we were all presented with beautiful designer ties (way above what we could afford). It’s a good thing that we didn’t react badly when the ties were cut, but took it in stride.

About this time things were getting ugly with possible anti trust violations and indictments of some of the executives for bribing public officials…it looked like it was a very good time for Bob and me to “bail”. It was just at this time that I was on jury duty and had the massive MI (heart attack) that destroyed the lower third of my heart. During the six months it took me to recover I grew a beard and decided that I really liked the look.

I went to interview for the Area Sales Manager’s position at the the third largest telephone company in the country wearing the new beard. I was interviewing with the Vice President of Marketing and his final question was “How important is that beard to you.” And I answered “If it stands in the way of me getting this position, it will be gone tomorrow,” He told me he just wanted to check out my priorities and the beard was fine “It makes you look professorial.” This was the very best company that I ever worked for, and within six months I was promoted from Area Sales Manager (managing the Minnesota sales force) to Regional Sales Manager (with responsibility for Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa , and Western Wisconsin). The workload was gruesome but I was going through a divorce at the time, and it kept me from dwelling on that.

I had the most opportunities to “do my own thing” that I ever had in my career…I interviewed and hired my entire sales force and trained them to sell the way that I wanted them to…and it worked like a charm…they all became very successful, and most of them ended up owning their own businesses.

Bob went in an entirely different direction and decided to manage his wife’s business.

We will get into that in the next post…it’s all absolutely true (give or take a lie or two).