Great Advice From the Seat Next to Me

So the flight into Los Angeles (LAX) was pretty typical. Nothing of outstanding misfortune occurred that would make me want to write about it. There was a lovely woman I sat next to that engaged me in conversation for the last bit of the flight.

Normally I won’t go out of my way to get involved with fellow travelers during a flight. Why, you might ask? Mostly because I figure if they want to be chatty the will be. Please don’t misunderstand my intentions. I’m no scrooge when it comes to meeting new people. I’m as friendly as the next fellow.

Unfortunately, after all of my years of traveling this country, one truth I’ve found self evident is that people like to be in charge of their space, time, and tend to interact accordingly. I’m very much the same way. There have been plenty of times when I don’t care much to interact with those sitting near me on a flight.

Long or short flying times, if someone’s not interested in communicating you just cannot take it personally. And early on in my business travel career I think I did just that. When I wasn’t able to engage my fellow seat mates, I thought there must be something wrong with me.

Did I smell funny? I know it wasn’t because of my cologne, so maybe it was my bathing habits? Or perhaps my diet that leaked odors out through my sweat pores? I just didn’t know.

As I was taking the shuttle to my room at the LA Convention Center Hotel I remembered back to one conversation I had with an older gentleman on a cross country flight. The essence of our talk was him sharing lessons from his quarter century of traveling for a living.

Only rarely have I had the opportunity to be in the company of individuals I’d consider professional mentors so I basically asked questions and listened with my mouth shut and my ears wide open!

The biggest take away from that time dealt with simply focusing on other peoples needs. This man shared with me that by giving to others what they needed in the moment of my interactions with them, I was doing everything possible to be a great sales person. I was learning about the other party while not worrying about getting something in return.

Amazing advice. I’ve followed it ever since both in my sales career as well as learning more about the person sitting next to me on a plane. Or not as the case may be with that particular individual.

But back to this lovely woman. For some reason she was stuck on visiting Pinks Hot Dogs in Hollywood. I’d heard of them of course, but to hear her go on about the made me want to figure out how to make a visit happen. And while I’m not sure I can make it this trip to L.A. I am going to be back here in less than 2 weeks, so perhaps I’ll be able to have a bite then. We shall see!

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Tags: L. A. Convention Center Hotel, Pinks Hot Dogs, Travel Advice