Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Ni Hao from Chicago. I flew in tonight and then tomorrow night I’ll be flying to New York and then back home Friday night. I love the cities of Chicago and New York but won’t really see anything since I’ll be in each of them for barely 24 hours. I’ll be seeing two customers along the way and hopefully performing some magic for both of them. Friday should’t be more than the old “rabbit out of a hat" trick. I’m afraid Thursday may be more like sawing a lady in half. Oh, and trying to put her back together of course. There is always a catch. I do pre-sales and post-sales for a software company. What does that mean? I basically make lots of software presentations and convince people that the software is going to make their lives a million times better with all it’s fancy features. That is the pre-sales part. Then sometimes I get to go back and make it do all the things we promised. I’m not sure if it keeps me honest or I am developing a split personality.

I’ve only seen The Amazing Race a couple of times. However, from what I can tell, a group of software consultants could kick some serious butt on that show. It’s what we do every day. You find out at the last minute that you need to get to some random city. Maybe it’s Tulsa, Oklahoma and then again maybe it’s Mumbai, India. You figure out how to get there. You may have a vague idea of why you are going but that probably came from a sales guy (love ya Rick!) so you are pretty clueless until you get there. You arrive, try to figure out the best way to get to your assignment….train, taxi, rental car, rickshaw, donkey. Get to your assignment and then you are instructed to perform the impossible. Oh and there is a deadline because you have to be in another city by tomorrow. Things never go as planned so we always have a plan B in our back pocket. I have been stuck in traffic on the way to the airport and knew I was going to miss my flight. I ditched my Rental Car at a hotel, got on a train and still made my flight. Piece of cake.
You would not mind being on national TV screaming your fool head off at your teammates either. They are only co-workers, not your family. I’m telling you a group of software consultants could not be beat on that show. Of course the withdrawal symptoms of being without their Crackberrys could slow some of them down. There is always a catch.