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The last few days I had the distinct pleasure of meeting two very important people.

The first, as you can see, happened this afternoon. I was in NYC working with a client’s sales meeting and their keynote speaker was Olympic speed skater Bonnie Blair. She competed in four winter olympic games in 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1994. She was the first American woman to win five gold medals and is the most decorated athlete in the history of the Winter Olympics. The best part about her talk – for me at least – was that she had a presentation to show… that means that I got to review it with her and display it on the big screen while she gave her address. It was a motivational talk on her career and how the competition and goals and risks led to her success and then relating that back to business and sales. She was the first to admit that she didn’t enter into speed skating hoping it would one day lead to a career in public speaking, but ironically she was a fantastic speaker. Very polished and comfortable on stage. One of the best Q&A sessions I’ve witnessed.

She was the first Olympian I had ever met and, unfortunatley for all the other Olympians out there that I haven’t yet met, she set the bar pretty high. She was genuine, funny, relaxed and professional. She was even kind enough to sign a complementary copy of her new 1996 book A Winning Edge for me. I asked her to make it out to Erin. It’s the book on the left that her hand is resting on.

Pretty cool, eh? Well not as cool as the next big introduction:

The second was this past weekend at my sister’s home outside Philadelphia. We drove down to meet her new son and my new nephew Dillon. He’s so cute and was such a good baby during our visit. We only heard him cry once while we were there and that only lasted a minute or so. We were so happy to get to meet the little guy and watch Erin as she socialized with him and his big 2 year old brother Mikey. They were all so good and had such a good time together. We hope they grow up friends – not just cousins.

Two very important introductions only a few days apart. Since I was working such early hours in the city, I stayed with our good friends Jason and Allison. Jason blogged this while I snored on his couch last night. Sorry I crashed on you man – it had been a real long day.