My mother is the most punctual person I know. A few years ago, we had a Halloween party at our house. The party started at 8pm. My mom showed up at 6:30pm. This was unwelcome, because we still had a bunch of things to do to get ready for the party, and my mom wanted to gab and hang out. She left at 8:15, just as people were starting to arrive. She had put on a costume and everything.
For the record I didn’t get up at 3:30 though as you know I was in the gym at 6. After I left BlackRock, which was worse than Lehman for early starts, i committed to 7 hours of sleep, no exceptions.
I’ll never forget my first business trip to Asia in which nobody told me the customs around business cards in advance. I was baffled when they took my card with the same reverence as a Catholic taking communion. Meanwhile I nodded politely and put their card in my pocket. I felt like such a jerk later when someone finally told me.
As XO, I had a group of crew members who would show up 20 minutes before scheduled briefings. I would kick them out. I’m sure they just went to their berthing area and hung out, but eventually they started showing up 5 minutes before instead. If you’re on time, you’re on time. If you’re early, you’re wasting time. And if you’re late, well……
I lived in Switzerland and the trains would shoot out when the second had moved. I would take the night train to see my grandmother in Italy. It would leave on time and arrive late. Going back the train would leave between 1 and 3 hours late, but go through a time warp at the Swiss border to be right on time. I never knew how they did. On my return from Italy I would invariably miss a train as my sense of time would shift.
I come from a punctual family. My grandmother told me that keeping people waiting was a way of showing they did not matter to you.
I also lived in Mexico and everything work related was extremely punctual. Movies started right on the dot. Social events were usually late, but it depended on the social group holding them. It all got very confusing.
As a person that gets places early, I can say that it is very frustrating when you get that text telling you that they will be 30 minutes late, now you end up waiting an hour or so, sometimes you take a drive and then you end up being almost late for your now late meeting, which of course I was actually early for. Great laugh I had with respect to your mother, sounds like a fun lady though at heart.
I hope your intern reads this
For the record I didn’t get up at 3:30 though as you know I was in the gym at 6. After I left BlackRock, which was worse than Lehman for early starts, i committed to 7 hours of sleep, no exceptions.
I’ll never forget my first business trip to Asia in which nobody told me the customs around business cards in advance. I was baffled when they took my card with the same reverence as a Catholic taking communion. Meanwhile I nodded politely and put their card in my pocket. I felt like such a jerk later when someone finally told me.
As XO, I had a group of crew members who would show up 20 minutes before scheduled briefings. I would kick them out. I’m sure they just went to their berthing area and hung out, but eventually they started showing up 5 minutes before instead. If you’re on time, you’re on time. If you’re early, you’re wasting time. And if you’re late, well……
I lived in Switzerland and the trains would shoot out when the second had moved. I would take the night train to see my grandmother in Italy. It would leave on time and arrive late. Going back the train would leave between 1 and 3 hours late, but go through a time warp at the Swiss border to be right on time. I never knew how they did. On my return from Italy I would invariably miss a train as my sense of time would shift.
I come from a punctual family. My grandmother told me that keeping people waiting was a way of showing they did not matter to you.
I also lived in Mexico and everything work related was extremely punctual. Movies started right on the dot. Social events were usually late, but it depended on the social group holding them. It all got very confusing.
As a person that gets places early, I can say that it is very frustrating when you get that text telling you that they will be 30 minutes late, now you end up waiting an hour or so, sometimes you take a drive and then you end up being almost late for your now late meeting, which of course I was actually early for. Great laugh I had with respect to your mother, sounds like a fun lady though at heart.