Opening story
On a very wet and rainy Friday morning in June, one of those torrential downpour types of days, the traffic on the motorway was at a standstill: we were going nowhere. I had been on the motorway for nearly two hours on what should have been a 60-minute journey, and it was obvious I was going to be late for my appointment.
I made the call to my first appointment and postponed it for another day, then got off the motorway. As I now had a little time to spare before my next appointment, I grabbed a coffee and picked up a Business Today magazine from the bookshop. On the front cover was the country manager for Microsoft New Zealand, Kevin Ackhurst, and I knew I had to act. I had had an idea a couple of weeks previously, but had not done anything about it; now there he was looking at me from the magazine rack — it was an omen, surely.
I wondered if he was on LinkedIn and could I contact him through there?
Of course he was — most businesspeople are. And to my delight, I discovered he was in one of the groups I was in, which meant I could send him a message directly without knowing his email address.
I wrote a quick note to him with my idea, and sent it off. To my surprise, he responded within a couple of hours to say he liked my idea and was passing my details on to the team and they would be in touch.
True to their word, they did get in touch to organise a meeting. Woohoo! I’m talking to Microsoft!
Do you think that if I had simply picked up the telephone, fought my ...
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