I’M a proud dad, and I hate missing my children’s sporting events because of travel. But I do try to get updates, no matter where I am.
I was heading to Berlin for a conference last year and my son, Casey, was pitching in a really important high school baseball game. I called my wife, Barbra, from the airport and found out the score was close. I couldn’t see myself not knowing how it went. I decided to take a different flight so I could get a play-by-play while I was at Newark.
Although Casey’s team lost, he hit a home run, the first of five last season.
All I lost was some time. What I gained was a chance to hear my son talk about hitting a homer.
Spending those extra hours at the airport wasn’t that bad. I managed to finish a presentation, while eating two slices of pizza, which always seems to make waiting for a flight that much easier.
As chief executive of Smartbox North America, I go to our headquarters, just outside of Paris, quite a bit.
When I was headed to my first board meeting, I was cutting it very close because of flight delays. So instead of taking a taxi after I landed, I took a motorcycle service, since everyone told me it’s faster.
They give you a helmet that has a microphone in it so you can listen to the driver. I don’t speak French so that doesn’t do me much good. The driver also gives you a hairnet to put on first, before the helmet.
We made it to the office in record time, and I was feeling really good about not being too late. I went into the boardroom and everyone was giving me some very strange looks. I then realized I had forgotten to take the hairnet off. I have curly hair and so when I removed the hairnet, my hair was crazy-looking. Everyone was very gracious, but I’m sure they were thinking, “Who is this American guy?” Fortunately, the meeting went very well, despite me looking kind of insane.
I often suffer from jet lag.
My wife is really into holistic health, and she’s a big believer in the power of crystals. She discovered that certain crystals are good for jet lag. I’m not a believer like she is, but I don’t discount anything. So I took one with me on an overseas trip. I figured I had nothing to lose.
I was going through security at Paris-Orly Airport, and the alarm went off. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, but I rummaged through my pockets and discovered that I had a crystal in my left front pants pocket that I had forgotten about.
My first thought was that I couldn’t believe this little crystal was the cause of my problems. But the agents were having a major conference about this thing. I was trying to explain as best as I could that it’s just a crystal my wife gave me.
Fortunately, a young woman in line behind me took pity on me. She explained in French exactly what was going on. She then told me that she often carries a few crystals and that they give off some kind of vibration or energy.
I told my wife the story. She told me, “I told you so.”
I carry a few crystals with me now, and put them in either my computer bag or my coat pocket. I’ve never had another alarm go off, but surprisingly I’ve never had a bad episode of jet lag again, either.