Broken Bones and Ceilidhs

A lovely story on the morning twitter today: Christine Wise had a sudden phone call yesterday – her son had been rushed to hospital. He’d been with his Dad and broken his collarbone. Nothing too serious, then.

But still, she was in the hospital and naturally preoccupied. For once she wasn’t thinking about her business – not prospecting everyone who came within three feet of her as she usually does.

When suddenly someone else in the waiting room said: “All right then, tell me.”

“What?” said Christine.

“Tell me.”

It was only then that she realised she was wearing her badge. She wears it all the time – absolutely all the time.

Ask yourself this: If you were going to get paid £50,000 a year for wearing a badge, would you wear it?

I once wore mine when I took the family and the in-laws out to a rather grand restaurant to celebrate my birthday. After all, I reasoned, it was my birthday so I could wear the badge if I wanted to. The waiter asked me: “All right then, how do I save 5% on my shopping and petrol?”

Mind you I didn’t wear it yesterday to our friends’ joint 50th birthday party. But even thereI found there were opportunities: First I met a woman who worked as an accountant at the local public school.

“I used to be full time but I wanted to spend more time at home with the children,” she said. “They were very good; they let me go part time.”

“Ah well then,” I replied as if the thought had just occurred to me, “I ought to tell you about my business. It’s all part time but it pays a full time income. Tell you what: I can’t tell you here because me wife will say I’m talking shop but I’ll give you a ring next week. What’s your number?”

And of course I had my little notebook and pen…

Also, in my other back pocket I had some cards (just in case) and towards the end, when the ceilidh band was packing up, I went and talked to the bass player. He had a fascinating electronic contraption which enabled him to play drums with his feet.

We got talking: “Is this full time for you?”

(Of course it wasn’t: How many musicians playing at private parties are full time?)

He turned out to be a computer hardware engineer.

“Right then, I said. I’m going to give you one of these. I’m always looking for people with two jobs because people with two jobs can always do three – especially if they pay’s good enough.”

“Can I have some more,” he said. I’ve got some friends who might be interested…”