25 years ago today, on a cool, clear fall day, I pulled off the most important sales job of my life. I was a student at Xavier University in Cincinnati. My brother and I had tickets to a concert by the band Phish in Cleveland, on Friday the 13th of all days. Our plan was to meet up after class with this girl, Heather, we knew, and the three of us would take her car to Cleveland. Our tickets weren’t together, but it made sense for us to ride together, especially because neither my brother’s car nor mine at the time inspired a lot of confidence.
We convened at Heather’s apartment shortly after noon and found her crumpled in a heap on her couch, suffering from what seemed to be a really nasty stomach bug. My brother and I shared an ominous look as we assessed her state. She excused herself to be sick and I pulled Ben aside. Our conversation wasn’t entirely charitable, as we were deeply concerned about not having a ride to the concert, some 4 hours away. If Heather decided to bail on the concert, we were in a tricky situation.
Now, it’s only fair to explain that I kinda liked this girl Heather. As in, I had spent a couple months looking for excuses to hang out with her whenever I could. So, in addition to needing a ride, I was happy that the three of us were going to be driving to the show together, even though we didn’t have seats together.
At this point, I realized the gravity of the situation, and I managed to come up with the singular best sales pitch I’ve ever used, to this day. I said, “Heather, I know you feel terrible now, but the concert doesn’t start for another 6 hours at least. If you stay here, you run the risk that you’ll feel 100% better by show time, and you’ll be hundreds of miles away from the venue. On the other hand, if you GO to the concert, you probably won’t feel any worse than you do right now, and plus, you’ll be at a Phish concert, and that’s bound to raise your spirits. And I’ll drive if we can take your car.”
Even now, I’m really amazed I was able to muster that kind of logic. Thankfully, she agreed, and we took off. Through some miracle that makes this long story much longer, she and I ended up with seats together at the concert. I grabbed her hand at one point during the first set, and I haven’t let go since. We’ve been married for 12 years.
The moral of the story? I’m not sure, except that I’m a super lucky guy. And that sometimes you gotta just go all in and ask for what you really want. And that if you have tickets to the concert, for God’s sake, GO.
After 25 years of seeing concerts together, we finally caught another Phish show on Friday the 13th of last month. It was October, not November 13th, but it's as close as we are likely to get.