At the end of a recent, very long yet productive Friday, I head to a local bar to watch my alma mater, Gonzaga University, play their first game of the March Madness basketball tournament. Sports haven’t been my thing for years…I don’t even remember the last Super Bowl I watched. But any time my college makes the big tournament, you bet I’m watching.
I intentionally finished all my work for the day early and drove 40 minutes out of the way to go home just to put on my Gonzaga jersey before meeting a few friends at the bar. I’m a relationship guy. I’m all about including work and play. It was an open invitation…nothing formal. I invited a few friends and a potential new client.
I get to the bar 30 minutes before the game and snag a few chairs in front of the biggest TV.
Being so early I check my twitter feed and see something frightening. People are already commenting on the Gonzaga game. “OH, NOOOOO!” 4:40pm EASTERN TIME doesn’t work very well when your in California.
Fortunately, some highlights show there are still 7 minutes left with a very tight score…Gonzaga in the lead.
Within minutes of me sitting down, I order my food and quickly ask the bar tender to change the TV channel to TNT for the game. Since no one was paying attention to the Golf Channel, he says “Of course.” Then takes my order and returns to making drinks.
Ten minutes go by, he hands me my beer, but I’m still watching this golf tournament. How long does it take change the channel? 15 seconds 30 seconds. Granted he was pretty busy making drinks so I gave him a hall pass.
I ask again while pointing to my jersey “Hey man, my team is playing in the tournament right now and I came here specifically to watch the game. Can you please change the channel?” He says “Yeah, yeah, sure…Give me a second.” Goes back to making drinks.
Another 10 minutes go by and I’m still watching golf. “Ahhhhhh…” Twitter feed is going crazy. The game now in it’s final minutes, with Gonzaga barely in the lead. The bar tender still, taking orders and making drinks.
I pull over a less busy, fun-loving waitress and state “Hey, I came here to specifically watch the Gonzaga game, it’s in the final minutes. I’ve asked the waiter 2 times to change the channel and he may be just too busy and hasn’t gotten to it. Can you please change the channel to TNT?”
“Oh sure” she proclaims.
Cool…she was nice.
Another 10 minutes go by, and I want to throw a golf club through this TV. The waitress finally comes over with the remote.
Waitress: “So where am I going here?”
Me: “TNT, the Gonzaga March Madness Game”
Waitress: “So, what kind of sport is that?”
Me (Starting to lose my cool): “Basketball”
Waitress: “I can’t seem to find it”
She is looking through all the sports channels.
Me: “No…it’s a normal channel…basic cable…TNT.”
Another waitress comes up to help.
They finally find the game. Turn it on. “Here you go. Enjoy!”
13 seconds left, Gonzaga shooting free throws, wins by 8. I’m ready to start breaking things!
At this point I don’t want to be around anyone.
Fortunately, the potential client who said she might show up isn’t there.
One friend texted in “Hey, I’m about to head down see you in a few.”
I reply “Don’t worry. Game is over. Gonzaga won. I’m going home!”
The bill for my beer comes, for which I only drank a few sips of because I was so anxious to watch the game. I don’t normally do this, but under tip section I write “Zero” with an arrow pointing to the back side of the receipt where I write a paragraph about what happened and rip into the waiter. I hand it to the hostess and politely ask “Can you please give this to your manager?”
While leaving the bar, who do I see? My client, walking in with a friend. Ahhhhhhhh!
My current state would not be one to generate anything good from this interaction, so I decide to tell them the truth.
With all the personal development I’ve been through, you’d think I’d just walk back in there with a smile on my face like nothing was wrong. But something was.
The client is completely understanding and says “No, worries. We were going to head in and have a drink here tonight anyways. Maybe next time.”
I walk back to my car and sit in my drivers seat and get even more pissed that I am about to miss out on an awesome opportunity with this client.
Once I stopped being a grumpy little 5 year old, a few sobering questions came to mind:
QUESTION #1: “What’s the intention…right now?”
ANSWER: “Build relationships, make connections, and have a fun/relaxing time.”
QUESTION #2: “Am I fulfilling on that intention right now”
ANSWER: “NO”
QUESTION #3: “Is it possible to have the intention fulfilled with the circumstances?”
ANSWER: “Sure, it’s POSSIBLE”
QUESTION #4: “If it’s possible, what would it look like?”
ANSWER: “Go back in the bar, apologize for acting a fool, and have a good time.”
I walk back in, the waiter is gone…either off his shift or he got fired. Either way nothing is going to stop me from having an awesome time with this client. They openly allow me to join them at their table. We have an awesome time for about an hour and agreed to do it again soon. SUCCESS!
I love what Muhamed Ali said “Everyone can smile, until they get punched in the face.” Now you may think that I took this experience too personally…and you’d be right. I could have handled a lot of things better. Like confirming the game time was Pacific, not Eastern time.
The point is, we all have those days where we want to start shooting people. Being positive all the time is unrealistic. I think the value is, how long does it take to “clear the calculator” when things go wrong. Still working on that reaction time myself.
Oh, and the Arizona - Gonzaga game is this tonight Sunday 9:40pm Eastern time 6:40 Pacific Time! Go Zags :-)
