What we learn from the bottom of the box

As I've mentioned before, one of our winter project is to clear out our study. We've lived in this house for more than 25 years. Stuff related to household business, books, computers, and cute stuff winds up here. Those readers who worked with me may remember the fake coffee-spill-on-a-floppy-disk that I had in my office for many years. That kind of stuff filled half a shelf.

Yesterday I found an American Express business card, cut in half, with my name and my former company, Longview Consulting. The card dates from 1995. I did a brief stint, probably two or three jobs, helping people get set up with web sites, teaching people how to use the very primitive web publishing tools that were available at the time.

I enjoyed the variety of tasks and customers that came from these consulting gigs. What I disliked and what got me out of the consulting business is that I am a lousy salesman. In order to sell, you basically have to be willing to walk up to people and say, "Will you be my friend?" and then not get too dejected when they turn you down. In the consulting world, the ability to sell yourself is much more important than your technical chops.

BTW, I chose the name Longview because, at the time, a family named Long lived across the street from us.