This only happens in the movies, but it happened to me!
True story! Do read!
A few days back, I got a call from a client/friend who recently had joined a new company and they were looking for a marketing and advertising agency. The meeting was in a commercial complex in an area that I wasn’t very familiar with.
My driver dropped me at the front gate and by the time I realized that the entry was at the back, he had gone away. It was drizzling and I had to rush past a few shops to the other gate and avoid getting wet.
I reached a gate and asked the watchman if the office I was looking for was in that wing, and the watchman just pointed me to a man who was going to the same place and told me to follow him.
The man I was asked to follow was holding a broom/mop in his hand and 2 packets of garbage bags.
Now this man looked at me and asked me (in Hindi) where I wanted to go, and I told him the office name.
He then asked me who I wanted to meet, and I told him my friend’s name.
He then asked me, what work did I have? I thought it was a bit bugging for a man holding a broom to ask such detailed questions, but I politely and firmly said, “Meeting hain!”
Luckily the lift door opened and the interrogation ended. He went his way, I went mine.
Soon, my friend then came and took me into one of the meeting rooms and we started discussing the business, how its grown and their growth plans and requirements.
He then told me that his Managing Director would also like to talk to me and he called him from the intercom.
After a few minutes, his MD enters.
If you are ahead of me, you know what happens…..
Yes, the man in the lift with me, holding the broom and garbage bags was the MD!!!!!
Both of us looked at each other, shook hands, and my friend introduced us to each other.
My friend then just stepped out for a call and it was just the two of us. Awkwarrdddd!!!
I had to break this in some way….
So I said to him, “You’re like me”…
He asked, “What makes you say that?”
I said. As an entrepreneur, I even handle the Boardroom to the Bathroom!
And he bursted out laughing!
We had a good meeting.
Now imagine if a few minutes back in the elevator, I said something nasty, or just ignored a man holding a broom, asking me all kinds of questions.
What kind of a situation I would be in when he would have entered the meeting?
There’s a lot I learnt that day and luckily it wasn’t from a mistake.
Like I said, this story is straight out of the movies!
