Business Travel
Robert Jolles

Keep Your Eyes On The Real Prize

 

Although this blog represents the sixth blog I have written, by now you should start seeing a theme in my ramblings. A few of you may be upset, wondering, "I thought this guy was going to teach us how to get our bags on board!" Sorry to disappoint some of you, but if I'm going to write about business travel and the life of the Road Warrior, I think we've heard enough about the cheesy little travel tips. So, how about this for a little cheesy travel tip? Keep your eye on the prize.

Huh? What prize? Well, in 400 words or less, let me remind you. The "prize" isn't why you are traveling; it's who you are traveling for.

When I was working for Xerox, I was one hell of a Xeroid. I traveled to company sites, put on seminars on behalf of Xerox, and the crowds came. So did the requests for more seminars. The corporation did what corporations are supposed to do. They rewarded my success with more travel. After spending over 150 nights on the road, I informed the company I had to leave and went into business for myself.

At last I would be in charge of my travel and things would change. They did; my travel went up to over 200 nights a year. I took my eye off the prize. I had my eyes on the monetary prize, and the ego prize that goes along with wealth. I even conned myself saying, "If I do my job my real prize, my family will have almost anything they want." Everything except what they wanted most – me.

Then one day my wife sat me down and not only saved our marriage, she may very well have saved my life. She waded through the, "I promise, it will get better in a few months" mantra that most Road Warriors chant, and promised me that she and my children would rather have me at the birthday parties, and ball games then the wealth I had assumed they wanted.

I'll speak more about this at another time, I promise, because this is a tricky subject with complex answers. However, suffice to say, I think this is part of our Road Warrior conversations.

Lesson: A wise man once told me, "We weren't put on this earth to make a living; we were put on this earth to make a difference." I have that saying up in my office. It is actually hiding on my side of my desk where only I can see it because I'm not so sure how comfortable that would make my clients who come visit me. Why not print out your own sign that will remind you to keep an eye on your prize?