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| Sirminone, 2008 |
Yesterday was a good day. A crazy, hectic, tiring but good day. I had my first company board meeting in my new professional role. Both planes to Vienna were delayed because of snow but I made it home one hour after midnight, enough to get 5 hours of sleep before this Friday. Meeting was good. I have prepared and delivered some presentations, discussed them for 3 hours. Relatively smooth and friendly.
In any case not according to the HUGE pressure, preparation and tension I had experienced in the weeks before. I spend nights, weekends trying to work out every detail, every PowerPoint line and table being afraid that I might not convince those guys or forget a detail or an answer. Even after the meeting was over I was scrutinizing for flaws in my presentation, still feeling tense.
And here we are, meeting finished, taking a taxi to the airport. An orange Prius, partially-electric car. Young women as a driver. Perfect English. Lovely smile, addictive laughing. Driving like a cowboy. Gas pedal to the floor, flashing everybody, horning. "Fuckers, oops sorry". Trying to overpass everybody everywhere. Can you imagine this, in the quiet, decent, respectful Vienna? I couldn't. Someone was driving reasonably fast in front. "Haideee..." WHAT? That's a Romanian word. "Oh, no I am a Croatian, and this is the way I like to drive, this is who I am". And the police? "Catch me if you can, I am an excellent driver, I have no fear".
Indeed she hadn't any. Living as she liked, laughing. Why shouldn't she? Why shouldn't I? Or you? She had no fear of failing. Why should you? I guess is a straight forward conclusion to this: "You are good, be confident, be yourself, don't be afraid of failure"
It's amazing how many life lessons one might get in a taxi, we should tell those stories more often.
In any case not according to the HUGE pressure, preparation and tension I had experienced in the weeks before. I spend nights, weekends trying to work out every detail, every PowerPoint line and table being afraid that I might not convince those guys or forget a detail or an answer. Even after the meeting was over I was scrutinizing for flaws in my presentation, still feeling tense.
And here we are, meeting finished, taking a taxi to the airport. An orange Prius, partially-electric car. Young women as a driver. Perfect English. Lovely smile, addictive laughing. Driving like a cowboy. Gas pedal to the floor, flashing everybody, horning. "Fuckers, oops sorry". Trying to overpass everybody everywhere. Can you imagine this, in the quiet, decent, respectful Vienna? I couldn't. Someone was driving reasonably fast in front. "Haideee..." WHAT? That's a Romanian word. "Oh, no I am a Croatian, and this is the way I like to drive, this is who I am". And the police? "Catch me if you can, I am an excellent driver, I have no fear".
Indeed she hadn't any. Living as she liked, laughing. Why shouldn't she? Why shouldn't I? Or you? She had no fear of failing. Why should you? I guess is a straight forward conclusion to this: "You are good, be confident, be yourself, don't be afraid of failure"
It's amazing how many life lessons one might get in a taxi, we should tell those stories more often.