Monthly Archives: October 2008

I ran the two-day The Strategist Workshop in Sydney on Wednesday and Thursday for a terrific group of 41 people. It was really fun. One person from the States and several Kiwis.

On Friday morning, I keynoted for a legal association, and that wasn’t as much fun! The theme of the conference was about doing things differently and refreshing the profession. I think if you want to do things differently, first you have to smile!

My driver whisked me to the airport, and at the first class ticket desk I was told they were looking for me all morning, since my flight would be three-hours delayed. If they had found me, it wouldn’t have helped. At that point, a very bright, competent, striking woman worked for 40 minutes to get Qantas to reroute me through San Francisco. She then walked me to security and pointed out where the first class lounge was located. I wasn’t upset at all by the problem after that kind of service.

Slept for 8 hours of the 13-hour flight. Waiting in the Admiral’s Club in San Francisco for my Boston flight, I moseyed into the rest room, and found myself at a urinal standing next to a man in a very nice grey suit, well groomed, about six feet tall and in his late 50s. I know this because, abruptly, he turned to me and started talking, and you know that I don’t even speak to people at cocktail parties.

“I’ll be working here tomorrow,” he said.

I was confused. “You mean you work for American Airlines?” I hazarded.

“No, I’ll be right here.”

“Are you an inspector?”

“No, with the market the way it is, by this time tomorrow I’ll be cleaning this rest room. That’s all that will be left for me. How about you?”

“I just had two grandchildren,” I said, “try to maintain some perspective.”

Next time I’ll use the stall.

I’ll be back in Australia in February to run Six to Seven Figures, then will speak for a day in Queenstown, New Zealand. I’ll return again next October. Meanwhile, I’m also in Dublin with the Self-Esteem Workshop in February.

I flew about 24,000 miles on this trip, spoke to a total of over 900 people, spent 9 nights away, and earned something over $135,000 in direct revenue. I was happy to have gone. I’m happy to be home.

© Alan Weiss 2008. All rights reserved.

PS: Latest news on granddaughters is positive after a couple more scares. They are four weeks old, about halfway through their intended hospital stay. Thank you all for your good wishes and prayers. I can’t wait until they weigh as much as Buddy Beagle. (My daughter barely weighs more than Koufax.)

I began this trip by flying to Phoenix to deliver the keynote for PI Worldwide, which, in the words of the buyer, was a “grand slam home run.” After meeting the black German Shepherd (see another post here), I flew to LA, boarded a Qantas 747, and flew to Sydney, where I’m 15 hours ahead of New York time.

I had dinner with a friend on Saturday, then flew to Melbourne on Sunday for dinner with the board of the IMC there who, unbelievably, paid my full international fee to address their chapter. (No one here had bothered to tell me they had shifted overnight to daylight savings time and I literally lost an hour, but still made the plane.) No other IMC chapter in the world has had me appear for a day, and this was, in the president’s words, a huge victory. They were able to charge over $1,000 a seat, drew 40 people, and we had an outstanding day. Terrific people.

Back to Sydney Monday afternoon (holding rooms in two different Park Hyatts at the same time, see the accompanying photos of my view of the opera house and bridge), and presented for a day yesterday for Rob Nixon, a member of the Mentor Hall of Fame, who filled the Hilton’s Grand Ballroom with just over 500 people, predominantly from the financial professions. It was a great day, terrific response, and one of the most expensive seminar seats every offered in Sydney, again over $1000. I delivered this having awakened at 2:30 in the morning local time.

Dinner with Rob’s team at Aria last night on the water. Today I’ll begin two days of The Strategist here at the Park Hyatt, where I expected 25 people but have 40. Fedex shipped three boxes out of four, not my idea of a great performance standard. I’ll make do. I seem to be back on a more normal circadian rhythm.

The granddaughters are a roller coaster. Gabrielle is recovering from her infection. Alaina has had an operation, there were some poor indictors, but now things look cautiously better. (http://danielleandjan.blogspot.com/)

In the meantime I learned only this morning that one of my few, long-time good friends, Bill Howe, had a terrible, bizarre grill accident on vacation, and is hospitalized long-term with 2nd and 3rd degree burns. He is 73.

And so I watch an eminently satirical presidential contest between two sides which both leave me cold, and a public mood so bleak that it is causing serious market decline worldwide, creating tremendous uncertainty.

What do you do? You get up, do your best, help people, and then go home and help yourself. In the process, not surprisingly, people have helped you.

© Alan Weiss 2008. All rights reserved.

It’s existential to travel to Australia, where the time, day, and season are all different upon touchdown. It takes about nine months to acclimate, which means you might as well become a resident, except they won’t let you do that, so you become comfortable awakening at 5 am local time, which is 3:30 pm, May 4, 1951 in most other parts of the world.

On the way out here I met a police officer with a black German Shepherd in Phoenix. I told him I had a white one.

“They’re beautiful dogs,” he said, and told me that the dog lived with him and his family.

“What’s her specialty?” I asked.

“She’s one of the best explosive-detecting dogs in the service,” he said. “How about yours?”

“Well, ah, he’s ah, very good at catching squirrels.”

“Nice talking to you,” he said, not looking at me, “but we have to finish our patrol route.” The dog shot me a look. I strictly adhered to her “do not touch me” sign.

When I first began flying to Australia, the 747s had first class in the nose, as now, but merely coach behind that and the upstairs deck had a piano bar, leather couches, and drinks. We would hustle up to find comfortable seats, since first class seats then didn’t turn into beds and were adjacent to each other. Today, business class is crammed upstairs, no more hedonism up there, though the first class seats now recline into beds with duvet, blanket, and thick pillows.

My habit is to read and have dinner for two hours, sleep for six hours, then write for three hours, and have breakfast, read, and clean up for landing for three hours.

I’m in Melbourne for a day’s presentation, then returning to Sydney this afternoon, and am no doubt the only person in Australia holding rooms in two Park Hyatts in different cities on the same night. It’s too much trouble to pack up and clear out.

The economy here is somewhat shielded from our mess at home, but there is clear fallout. The presidential election looks even more bizarre from here than it does at home. These are the best candidates available for the most important political job in the world?

© Alan Weiss 2008. All rights reserved.

PS: Both granddaughters enduring a variety of pre-mature difficulties, and Alaina just had an operation. You can find information and leave comments here: http://danielleandjan.blogspot.com/