PRODUCT SHOWCASE

from March - April 2017

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

Suddenly, I was not the salesman who was trying to sell them something. Instead, I was a mild-mannered reporter illuminating them about an opportunity that would make their stores safer, more secure, and more profitable. I felt good about myself; my self worth soared to new heights. I thought, “So this is what Jim Lee feels like.”

A good friend of mine once said that a conference is “an organized way of postponing a decision.” I have stood in front of many a booth during the last thirty-three years and questioned why I was there.

No More a Pariah

In the past, I was a pariah who was trying to get someone to spend precious capital dollars on something they could not afford. In years gone by, they might have sprinkled anthrax on me and sprinted like Usain Bolt to the open bar at the back of the exhibit hall. I thought to myself that my old friend has found a way to be relevant without the stigma of people thinking they have to actually buy something from him.

I need to be a reporter. Do reporters have quotas? Maybe their expense accounts are not as big, but surely people like them. People want their name in print. I want to be Jim Lee. I want to be the William Randolph Hurst of the loss prevention world. Put me in coach; I can make good.