Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: "If there is any period one would desire to be born in, is it not the age of revolution; when the old and the new stand side by side and admit of being compared; when the energies of all men are searched by fear and by hope; and when the historic glories of the old can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new era?
This time, like all times, is a very good one if we know what to do with it." If we know what to do with it.
Which reminds me of a story that happened 17-and-a-half years ago for me.
I lived in Sydney, Australia, and I just started a new job.
And I was asked to go to a national sales meeting because I was the general manager of the operation, and I learned that the national sales meeting was actually on the date that my wife was due to have our child.
So I was very concerned, I went home and told her, "Look, first children are never born on their due date.
So I'm going to be gone just one night, and I'm going to Cairns, Australia, and I'm going to be there for one night for this meeting, I have to give a speech, and I'm going come back, and everything will be fine; and very likely, as the doctor told us, anyway, you're not going to have the baby for about two more weeks." So I went up there, and I was still negotiating the bonus plan for the year, so I was talking with my new boss, who is a Swiss gentleman named Rodo.
And Rodo had this very, very heavy thick Swiss accent, and he always smoked cigarettes.
And we're going through this tough negotiation, and right in the middle of the negotiation, at 11:45 at night, as we sat in the bar, the phone rings.
That's my wife.
