I’ve written a lot about connections and re-connections in retirement.  (See Posts #212, #175, and #61).  Last week, my wife and I had dinner with an old acquaintance from Ft. Wayne, Indiana.  He and his wife were on vacation here in Portland, and my wife put us all together for the evening.  I made a point of not drinking in anticipation of the Hood to Coast, not realizing that they were probably more dedicated runners than myself.  While I was bemoaning having to get up at 3 a.m. to run my Hood to Coast relay leg of 7.1 mile at noon, they were planning a 12.1 mile jog in the morning and then a climb-up Multnomah Falls as an encore.  Everything is relevant, you learn, and so much for self-pity!

I had not met his wife, who was definitely the driving force behind his running interests.  He was from my hometown of Elkhart, Indiana, but 11 years younger.  We met in the Ft. Wayne media business, and my wife met him through her company’s mutual ownership of both of their stations.  It’s the same company that is currently making my retirement possible, having sold off their interests several years ago.  Now, he and my wife simply stay in touch to lament the fact that neither of their current owners are as generous to work for in today’s media world.  I just sat back, amused at their frustrations, and touting the joys of retirement.  He was the 26th re-connection that I’ve made this year, and the 4th from my home town.  I credit Face Book with some of these chance encounters, and others a result of the forces of nature bringing us all back together again.

I made several new connections over this past weekend as a result of the Hood to Coast Relay.  There were my eleven new team mates, another team that bought me a couple of birthday drinks, and a former client that may have considered me to be a stalker.  Years ago, when I was still working, I stopped at an area Volkswagen dealership to inquire about advertising.  I met with the General Manager, who I took an immediate liking to, and did several follow-up calls.  My bosses at the time considered themselves experts in the automotive advertising category, and would often force themselves upon us to get in front of our auto clients.  They were, of course, doing their job as managers, trying to help us succeed.  As a former sales manager myself, I was well beyond needing the help of my superiors, preferring to generate the business on my own.  In a moment of weakness, I allowed one of them to accompany me on my next sales call, and at the last minute his boss also decided to come along,  I was a bit embarrassed when surprising my potential client with a trio of suit-and-tie guys, but he was very gracious in accommodating us.

We did not team-up to sell the guy, but instead focused on his needs as a business person, so there was really no need to be embarrassed about our efforts.  I thanked the client and promised to get back to him, but I also felt that my credibility as a salesperson was compromised.  I was not comfortable with my superiors trying to take credit for a sale that I wanted to achieve on my own.  Somehow, I could see them reporting to the owner that they were able to get the sale, after I had “struggled.”  I was simply taking me time, trying to build some credibility with a new client, and suddenly I felt like I was being pushed.  At the same time, I was tired of being micromanaged and ready to retire.  My bosses weren’t aware, but my client was also getting ready to retire, and was not really motivated to make changes to his advertising plans.  I did follow-up as promised, but didn’t push as much as I probably should have.   Instead, I talked to him about running, and the fact that we both ran every single day – the single bond that we shared.  I would send him information on the United States Running Streak Association that I belong to, in addition to campaign suggestions.

Not long after I made the three-headed call, we all headed to Maui for the Oregon Auto Dealer Association meetings.  I knew that I would see him there, but didn’t expect to be seated next to him at dinner.  I was still a bit embarrassed about the call, but stayed away from bringing it up in conversation.  Instead, I met his wife, also a runner, and the woman and her family that owns the dealership.  We talked about running and retirement.  I next ran into him in the restroom, and it seemed like everywhere I went he was in front, behind, or beside me.  I began to feel like a stalker, purposely staying out of his way, but somehow not being able to avoid contact, whether it be at a cocktail party, the pool, a run on the beach, or a meeting.  He and his wife were on the same flight coming back, and even rode the same shuttle bus to the parking lot.  I told my wife that the whole affair seemed kind of eerie, and that surely he thought I was stalking him for his business.

A few weeks later, my wife and I went to Seattle for a Mariners game, where I got complimentary tickets thorough a media connection with the team.  We stayed overnight before the game at a nearby Marriott Hotel, taking advantage of Rewards points.  I went out in the morning for my run along the waterfront and spotted my V.W. client and his wife running the same route.  I wasn’t positive it was them until we went to the game and had seats right next to them.  They were ironically guests of the local newspaper, where they spent the bulk of their advertising dollars, so once again I wasn’t in a position to talk to them about radio.  I told them that I saw them on the waterfront that morning, and jokingly mentioned that I really wasn’t trying to stalk them everywhere they went.  I just thought it was intriguing how our paths seemed to cross frequently.  She told me that she was beginning to take over the advertising responsibilities, and that he was getting ready to retire.  I told her that I was retiring at the end of the year, but would pass the torch to someone new.

I was listening to one of our radio stations, several months after I retired and heard a spot for this dealership on the air.  I’ve always wondered if I didn’t push hard enough to close the business, or if it was just a matter of timing in the transition from him to her.  Hopefully, I was helpful in at least establishing a connection to our stations – whether it be considered stalking or not.  My two bosses were no longer involved locally in the stations at the time of my retirement, so they would not have played a role of any kind in the sale.  I did run into this client again two days ago at the Hood to Coast event.  He was waiting for his wife to finish her leg of the race, but was not participating himself.  We both congratulated ourselves on retirement, and hopefully he doesn’t think of me as the radio-hawking stalker that I once apparently was in life.