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It is hard being on the road over 200 nights a year...away from your family, isolated in many ways. It definitely isn't for everyone. This blogs represents the thoughts of just one such person. Read along and find out if the road is for you.
This is my new blogchalk:
United States, Georgia, Gainesville, Unity of Gainesville, English, John, Male, reading, RE Investing. :)
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Monday, March 31, 2003
Another long and lonely trip that I find myself on….
It is Sunday and I am on a plane going to a client. Usually not that big a deal. Except this week I started my week by leaving home on Saturday evening.
I landed back in New Orleans and spend my Sunday helping the client re-do their physical inventory that they botched up in December.
Let me ask a stupid question. (Actually, I am not sure which is more stupid…my questions or clients who really can’t afford you still have you come out.) This cost the client about $3,000 to have me come out for a single day. When I was there at the beginning of the week, I told them how expensive it would be for me to come out on a Sunday. “Thanks for your honesty, but we want you out.” That was on Monday. On Thursday, sanity came into play and they realized they were spending a lot of bucks to have me do what they certainly could do without me. “Can they save the money and just have me on phone standby?” the President asked. My reply was, “You know what? The time to think about that was on Tuesday at the latest. At this point, you would have to pay the cancellation fee of $1,000.” So when it was all said and done, I went to New Orleans and worked the day.
Now I am off to Odessa, Texas. Why?? I don’t know. We have consultants that live in Texas who more than likely could do the work. I am not complaining mind you. It is just I feel like I am taking work away from them and it would have saved the client a good bit of travel expenses.
I leave Wednesday and head to Orlando. There, we are having our annual user’s group meeting. The first year, I felt great about going. Now, I am not as sure that this is that big a deal. I know it isn’t that good a deal. What is my reward for doing this for Da Company? Well, I get to leave on Sunday afternoon and take several flights to Detroit, where I will spend until the following Thursday, whereby I get to take several more flights (when there are directs available)
In between, I need to rehearse my presentations for Orlando, do the follow up on Da Biz, coordinate getting the new house ready and try to get a new job either at Da Company, or somewhere else.
I am ready for a new position. While my time at Da Company has certainly been profitable (no, it wasn’t meant to be punny), I know that if I wasn’t traveling so much, that my life would be so much more different than it presently is.
But as usual, I digress. I am looking forward to seeing friends and clients this week in Orlando. It is just that between now and this coming Saturday, it is going to be a grind.
Enough for now. Natasha is back. Woohoo. I have some books to give her when I see her in Orlando. Time to go.
Blog on!
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