Today I took four flights to go have lunch with one of my earliest customers, whom I consider friends.

I woke up early, drove across the Canadian border into the Buffalo airport, flew to Chicago (thank you for the upgrades to First class, United Airlines!), and after a short connection I took another flight to Dallas Fort Worth. An Uber took me to my customer’s office, from where we went to lunch at the Cork & Pig Tavern. We caught up for a couple of hours both about our lives and about the upgrade and migration project we’re doing for them, and another Uber took me back to the airport, from where I followed the reverse path (flight to Chicago, short connection, and flight to Buffalo).

Being able to cover such vast distances in a day trip is both a wonder of modern technology as much as an environmental crime. But, whether we want it or not, enterprise sales are done face to face.

What kills me is the long hours: wake up at 3am, go to sleep at midnight, get up again the next day at 7am for a video-conference with Europe, and drive again to the airport for a flight to Colombia… and so on for day after day after day. I love traveling, and I don’t mind any amount of effort. My body, on the other hand, is starting to complain. After all, I think I’m not 17 any more. Who would have thought, after so many years! :-)