We normally talk about our great moments. The times when everything went great, the times we did the big show, the times we hit the big budgets.

But it isn’t all like that. I got an email a couple of days ago that challenged me to do an article about the bad ones. Since I will be asking for contributions for it, I thought that I would lead off in order to encourage others.

This little horror story begins in Dayton, Ohio. A young man, only 24, in his first job with an AV company, is conducting a sale. The job is the annual stockholder meeting for one of the largest heavy equipment dealerships in the world. Those of you in the rental and staging industry know that annual meetings are among the crown jewels of sales. They’re the ones for which the client pulls out all the stops, and so do we. I pursued this order like a terrier on a rat, and finally beat out our much larger local competition for the job. As I recall, it was our first $10,000 rental order, which was huge in 1984. I was in my glory, and getting a lot of pats on the back from my boss and our technicians on the crew. The morning of the show, I was there early, in my ill-fitting suit, waiting for my great moment as the client saw the setup. The opening ran great, the lights came up…

…and they announced their bankruptcy.

Mortified is an inadequate word to describe the situation. I actually had to threaten to pull the plug on the show to collect the bill during the coffee break. But it was still a moment that the rest of the company, in their usual kidding way, never let me forget when my ego got too inflated. I have not thought about this moment in a long time, and even now it makes me a little sick to my stomach.

Have a moment like this you’re willing to talk about? Post it here on the blog, or if you want it to be sanitized from your name before it’s posted send it to me via email.

Come on, I dare you.

JRR