Traveling for business is a way of life for my spouse/business partner and me. I have been traversing the U.S.A. for decades as a trial consultant and I plan to continue my road/air warrior lifestyle for years to come. Invariably, on a few of these business trips, I, or one of my employees, have forgotten an essential item. These essential, but forgotten, items have ranged from shoes (that go with a business suit, so that the sneakers worn while traveling do not have to be worn); a shirt (in a proper men’s size, not the petite size of the man’s wife); socks (so that the shoes to be worn with a business suit can be worn without displaying a hairy leg); and many, many other things. In the rush to pack in time to board the flight, it is easy to forget something, only to panic upon arriving at one’s destination, far from home, without the essential item(s). Fortunately for most of us who travel, there is a 24 hour big box retailer (the name of which will not be mentioned here) that can usually be counted on in an emergency. Sometimes, food has to be purchased as well, if a flight has been delayed or another unforeseen problem has developed, but finding food in the middle of the night has proven far simpler than finding a pair of pants to replace the pants that were torn in a particularly noticeable area upon arriving at the hotel. When one travels as much as I do, one learns to be creative, self reliant, and know where to find something in the event it was forgotten or ruined.
Sometimes it is not just a forgotten item, but instead, lost luggage. I will never forget flying to a city the night before a meeting with a trial team to review the results of their mock jury research and having the airline lose all of my and my partner’s luggage. The meeting was the next morning at 9:00 a.m., before the retail stores would open, but there was a bit of time before one nearby store closed. Both of us had to buy complete new outfits, shoes, belts, ties, underwear, makeup, toiletries, everything, to be ready to the next morning. It was a bit of panic, but more of a frantic rush to take care of things – while missing the chance to have a relaxing dinner. But, the show must go on, and it did. New suits and all. Oh, and yes, the bags were delivered after midnight, so we would have survived without the frantic trip to the store. But, we had to be ready – we had to adapt, innovate, and overcome!
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