#54 - Is your bag light?

That was one of my first weeks in a new job. Pretty much everything was new; new company, new role, new colleagues and new bosses. As you know, first impression is important. I am sure that I managed to give a special first impression. How did it all happen?

That was on my first business trip to San Francisco bay area with the new company. The daily schedule was busy and there was no time for tourist excitement. However, there was time to enjoy nice dinners in a good company, as well as early morning running sessions at the hotel gym.  

Once the meetings were over and I was in a hurry to catch the flight from SFO back to home. I said goodbye to my colleagues, packed my stuff and hurried to the local Bart metro station. I had relaxing feeling as I was happily on a trip back to home. 

My phone rang while I was on my way to the airport. It was a colleague of mine asking a straight question; “Is your bag light?” The question hit me in a second. I left my laptop on a table at the meeting room. For a second I thought about my options. There was no way to get my laptop if I wanted to catch the flight. How could I work the next week without laptop? Fedex delivery would be too slow in this case. My colleagues were going to stay another week in California. No good options were left, until I remembered that one of our company executives was flying back to Finland one day later. That is my opportunity, I though.

I called to the executive. Hello, this is Mr SneakerTraveller. I am on my way back to home and I want you to carry my laptop while you fly back to home tomorrow. I thought it is lighter to travel without my laptop, so I left it for you to bring it back to Tampere. Okay, it did not go exactly like that, but this was how I felt about it.

That was a relaxing weekend at home. For a reason or another, I did not work at all that weekend. The next Monday I was a humble when I met the executive at the office. At the same time I was happy to see my laptop again. Since then, I have heard a couple of times my colleagues reminding about the light bag.

Lessons learnt:

Have courage to admit your mistake, carry on the consequences and go on living full speed.

The art of delegation.