Word on the Street by Kevin Carty
Thursday, August 4 at 1 p.m.
I was returning to the office from a lunchtime doctor’s appointment when I got the call. The call came in on my cell phone and was from one of our newer and most consistent Classic Exhibits Distributors. To be honest, my first thought was, “Oh boy, I hope nothing went wrong on our recent project.” The owner normally doesn’t contact me on my cell. Usually their project management staff works directly with our Customer Service team.
So, I answered the phone. And if I told you that the conversion that ensued blew my mind, it would be the understatement of my life. This call was an offer to personally work on a project that I could never have imagined would ever come across my desk. So much so that I literally told our customer that I had to call him back. Then I immediately called home and told my wife, which was hard because I was seriously hyperventilating.
Now let me be very honest about one thing. Aside from family and close friends, this project touches on something that I am passionate about. And, it’s not just something I have a passing knowledge about. I literally know enough to talk about it for weeks on end.
If it sounds like I am being coy or avoiding telling you what this project is — I am. I will tweet about the project as we begin the install on August 31. But nothing before that. 🙂 Personally, this is the project of a lifetime for me. And I will be eternally grateful to our distributor who brought this to me. It’s just one of those things in life that honestly, they could have not picked a better person to project manage.
I have been spending most of my work and free time thinking about this project since August 4, wanting to make it perfect for the end-user. And it’s not like I or we don’t try to do that on all projects, but truthfully, we all know that every once in a while something comes along that hits so close to home that you find yourself going much further with your efforts than you ever even knew you were capable. Purely out of a desire to truly honor the recipient.
Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever been such a huge admirer of something or someone and then been literally given the opportunity to “memorialize” that person, group, or company? Please share your story. And I will do the same over the next two weeks.
I look forward to hearing your stories when you landed the project of a lifetime.
–Kevin Carty
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