Some days are better than others

It's December 5.

Day 339.

Only 26 to go.

But I think it's safe to say that today was far and away the worst day of 2009. And my birthday to boot.

I won't go into the details, but the only way I can bring myself to write a blog post this week is by reminding myself that it could always be worse. So here goes with the top 3 worst moments of my career so far – the worst pitch, the worst presentation, and the worst client lunch.

The worst pitch was also on my birthday. It was to Firepower, and then CEO John Finnin. All I can say is we lost the pitch, investors lost millions of dollars, the CEO's now in jail for sexually abusing young boys, and the chairman's about to follow him for fraud or some similar white collar crime. As it turns out, it seems we got off lightly.

The worst presentation was to a university vice-chancellor who decided to pull out a bottle of correction fluid halfway through the presentation. It turned out she wanted to make her own changes to the design recommendation. You know the sort of thing, a little off the side here and there.

The worst client lunch happened when one of my guests fainted at the table. She was out stone cold for a minute or two while we tried desperately to work out if she was still breathing. It was a real shock to say the least.

So that's it. Things can only get better, and they do say that tomorrow is another day – and what better way to get the ball rolling than with a Sunday lunchtime teleconference with the team in Cincinnati. Go the Bengals!