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05/24/2002 Archived Entry: "Do the hustle! doo doo doo da doo doo doo doo doo"

I can't believe that even after the dot-bomb era (or are we still in the dot-bomb era? It's all moving too fast for me.) there are still these guys that do the hardcore networking-sales thing. You know the kind of guys I'm talking about...

These guys are always super-hyped. Drive flashy cars. Dress cool. Have all the new gadgets (paid for by someone else's cash of course). They are constantly pressing the flesh. They have a new idea to add to their phantom business plan every hour. They work the room like sharks. They talk about all about their "core competency", how they will provide you with "solutions", something about them being "enterprise" level, and somehow they always talk a lot, but say very little. When they leave, you feel a little dirty. You want to shake it off and feel a little jittery shiver going down your spine. You wipe your shaking hand on your jeans to get rid of the cooties.

You wonder if they have a real life at all or if they are like this all the time. Are they embarrasingly over-confident with their friends? Do they try to sell their Moms on their wacky new web ideas? Are they on at 100 watts 100% of the time? Do they eat real food? Do they sleep? Or are they the business robots that are here to hornswaggle us real humans and eventually take over the earth?

I really don't know. I just know that I can't *do* that. It's unhuman, unreal, in a word - grossinating. I don't want to sell myself. I want to get to know people. I want to learn from them. I want to teach them. I want to share, think, emote, live. If I happen to have skills that they need - so be it - it's fortunate. Maybe I'll be kicking myself because these types will take all the clients and I'll be left behind in the dust. But I'd rather be left behind in the dust and still feel like a *real* person, than sell my soul to the networking-sales devil.

Replies: 1 comments - add a comment

Grossinating. That's a hella-cool word. And scary in that it describes too many people I know well.

Posted by Lach @ 06/15/2002 04:40 AM EST