Ersatz

On the drive into work this morning I had my oldest in the co-pilots seat as I gave her a lift to a conference she was attending at a downtown hotel. She's experiencing the other side of what I do for a living so it's kind of interesting to hear her thoughts on things. Hobnobbing with medical industry professionals from around Canada and the US she is being exposed to a new world, one that can be kind of hard to grasp for a third year university student...how the world really works.

As we made our way ever closer to the core of the city we talked about the social aspect of these conferences. The networking that takes place amongst seasoned veterans and dough eyed newbies alike. Drug reps looking to score, so to speak, interspersed with a plethora of other "medical industry" professionals. It's about who you know and who knows you. No different then the trade shows I go to to try and keep current with not only new products coming down the pipe but with who is doing what and where. Gossip, rumour and innuendo run amok amongst the latest fried wonder food that permeates the air.

I tend to make my way through these events rather quickly. Generally for two reasons, most of the products being showcased aren't of interest to me and too may people there are simply ersatz....fake, not genuine. While there are a number of people that I see every year at these events and I enjoy catching up with them the majority of people that cross my radar are only looking to me for a chance to sell me something. And that's fine really, since that's what they do for a living and in the end I am a buyer, it's the way this happens that irks me. Almost as if they are all reading from the same playbook using the same catch phrases and hoping to make a connection that generally I don't care to make...you need to do better. Start by being original and genuine, the opposite of ersatz.

Ersatz? A German word denoting a fake or imitation of another something. I remember reading the word in a novel about world war two and actually asking one of my German born instructors about the word to understand it better...I've said it before, the German's are great for this kind of thing. Ersatz boiled down to being a substitute, an inferior one, to a hard to come by product. In the story they were talking about a coffee substitute during the bombings of Germany...a melange of roasted rice, barley, chicory and probably shoe leather that stood in for a good cup of Joe. Along with death, destruction and disaster people had to suffer though fake coffee. The humanity of it all! To me those fakers are like boiled shoe leather....hard to stomach.

In the same fashion that I can't do small talk I have a problem with fakers. But the bigger issue may be is that I can't "normally" function in this world because I naively believe that a persons success should be tied to their ability as opposed to who they know. I didn't learn to network effectively and for sure it doesn't help that I am horrible when it comes to remembering names and faces so I think there have been times that I didn't get one position or another because I wasn't in the loop. Spending fourteen years as an island unto myself with my own little business didn't help either. Being the head cook and chief bottle washer, amongst other titles, meant I couldn't go to chef meetings to meet people, much less influence them. And when I did attend events it was an exercise of awkwardness for me...ugh. Square peg in a round hole could be engraved on my headstone if I choose to be disposed of that way...I'm leaning towards getting myself turned into a glass vase or a record...hahaha.

I hope my daughter learns from my experience and does the networking better than I ever did...she'll have the skills and work ethic I am sure, with the added edge coming from actually knowing the right people at the right time. But I also want her to understand that having that work ethic and the skills is still the most important thing. Your road may be a bit harder but you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you did it a la Sinatra...."your way" and without regrets.

Ciao
D