Effectiveness and Impact vs. Time

I travel pretty much more than I anyone I know. Hell, I travel pretty much more than anyone I have EVER known, or even read about, except maybe rock stars or other traveling shows that go from city to city, spending a day or two in each. I would like to think it gives me some insight into the human condition that i didn't used to have; I know it gives me insight into myself that I never had.

Ironically, I wasn't really ever one who wanted to travel (much) when I was younger. Aside from wanting to see the wonders of the Ancient World, and maybe be cool and hang out on cruise ship for like three months after the first time I saw "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", it just never occurred to me as something I might do with my life. I am techie -- I have been a techie for as long as I can remember, to the point that when other kids were getting in trouble for smoking pot, I was getting in trouble for using my father's "work" computer for stuff my parents didn't understand, stealing access time on university servers and much, much more. So, I really thought I didn't ever have to deal with...well...anyone.

But my line of work is such that I spend a great deal of time with customers, or wanna-be customers, or ex-customers, or bosses of customers -- well, you get the point. Easy, you might say -- there is tech for that! Need a meeting -- use WebEx. Want to chat with someone -- spin up your video camera, or your iPad 2, or your Galaxy, or whatever it might be, and have the chat right there. Who needs face-to-face meetings anymore, especially when they are so inefficient.

And the answer to that question, in my humble opinion and with my limited experience, is everyone. Doesn't matter what industry you are in, doesn't matter what your job is, doesn't matter how high or how low in the organization you are -- the truth is, everyone wants to be important enough to get your undivided attention when you are talking with them. And in fact, in my role as consultant or support or whatever I happen to be doing, I get far more OUT of them by talking face-to-face and giving (and receiving) the undivided than I ever do from a phone call, or webex, or video conference.

In this modern-day world where every other article (which is all I have time to read, it seems =D) talks about how we are all overwhelmed with the constant influx of tweets, and e-mails, and even blogs, a face-to-face meeting is even more valuable than it ever has been before. And that comes back to a message that I think we all need to believe -- our most valuable commodity is time, and to invest it in others shows that we care about them far more deeply than pretty much anything else we could do.