A 26 year-old graphic artists, Tony, picked up his shoulder bag and headed into the meeting. Even arriving 25 minutes early didn’t give him the confidence that he could get his presentation to run smoothly.
It was going to take an angel to comfort Tony after last night’s fiacso. Freezing and losing his saved work repeatedly, the artist’s computer had done all it could to thwart his efforts. around 2:45am, the powerpoint file was finally saved [knock on wood] and Tony tried to sleep. Tried.
This presentation was very important. Tony was a freelance graphic artist and the account he was about to pick up would be a significant chunk of his ever fluctuating income. The marketing team would give Tony 15 minutes to impress them and then they’d make their decision. It was all on the line.
Arriving early Tony said a little prayer. “God, help my computer not freeze or make weird noises or explode.” The part about exploding was funny, but one could actually envision that happening. Tony wasn’t laughing.
Tony fired up his laptop and ran through his presentation. He had rehearsed it many times, but actually spent most of the time on the powerpoint. Everything went smoothly as Tony rehearsed in front of the empty conference room. In moments, the people in this room would either make Tony’s life fun and full of money or they’d ship him out to hunt down more work.
As the marketing team filtered into the room, Tony shook hands, smiled and did all the thing a contractor should do. After 2 or 3 minutes, the team were all in their chairs with all eyes locked on Tony. Nobody needed to tell him it was time for his presentation.
The slideshow froze.
It only took 3 minutes for the screen to lock-up. And nothing Tony did could get it going again. His only option was to restart the computer and he didn’t have time for that.
The marketing team took it all in stride. Luckily for Tony, the entire marketing team had spent a lot of time going through all the candidates online profile. They were very impressed with his work. They’d be anticipating Tony joining the team. Honestly, there was a big push by a few on the marketing team to just forgo Tony’s presentation and simply offer him the work.
2 months later, Tony was entering the same conference room to present to the same marketing team. Again, he arrived early to work through his presentation. Tony has since purchased a new computer and it had yet to crash.
As the marketing team entered, Tony again greeted everyone only this time he was much less nervous. Taking their seats, each member of the marketing team again had their eyes locked on Tony.
In the brief pause between the collective silence and Tony’s introduction for the presentation, James, spoke up. “Let’s see if this one freezes up as well.” The group – Tony included – laughed.
Melissa chimed in, “This would be a perfect setting for one of those ‘I’m a pc. I’m a mac.’ commercials.”
Tony chuckled. He’d thought about that a lot. Last time he came in with an old HP laptop, he was just begging to be laughed at. Luckily his talent far exceeded his tools. He sure did love his new MacBook Pro. It was sleek, beautiful and Tony finally felt as if he was fully a graphic artist.
Tony, still smiling, responded to Melissa, “Very true. You know Mac’s are actually PCs too.”
