Waiting by the baggage carousel after a long flight.
You’re tired from a week of meetings and your body aches from the airline seat.
Your bag appears and you gratefully grab it and head through the green channel to the taxi queue and head straight to the hotel.
Tomorrow is a big day for you. Months of work on that project are coming to a conclusion. It’s taken more than a year to get these people in a room together.
Tomorrow is your day.
The traffic is horrendous and it’s two hours before you finally collapse onto the bed in the hotel room. The porter delivers your bag to the room and you open it to unpack your suit, ready for the big meeting. Only your suit isn’t there.
Your prototype isn’t there.
Instead you find a couple of dresses, a pair of high heels, hosiery and some underwear for the somewhat more feminine body.
You call the porters desk and tell them they’ve brought the wrong bag up. Could they please bring yours immediately.
The porter assures you that this is the bag that you brought in the taxi from the airport.
You must have collected the wrong bag from the carousel. Someone, somewhere has your bag.
You check with the front desk just in case a female guest has also checked in having arrived from the airport, and per chance she is unaware as yet , of the mix up… No. Other hotels… No-one reporting anything sir…
Now in a panic you phone the airport.
And there’s no-one answering. Not that surprising really, yours was the last flight in, and it is now 2am.
You berate yourself for being so stupid. For not checking your bag. For rushing.
You have a choice:
- You could choose to use the clothing that is in the bag and wing it through your presentation without a prototype to show them. You’re not certain if the dress would fit, but with a little squeeze here and there and sure the hotel has a razor you can use. High heels aren’t really your thing, but better than the sandals you have on now.
- Of course, you could go out and get some more masculine clothing, somewhere, surely something is open at 2 in the morning.
- You could get over to the airport and check with lost and found as soon as they open and just possibly make it back in time for the meeting at 8am.
- Or you could stay in your room. Pretend to have been struck down with a contagious virus and hide.
- Or, get some sleep, wash in the morning and go to the meeting wearing your current ensemble of shorts and a t shirt and sandals and, well, be you. Be honest and open and put everything on the line.
Months of work and hours of research are at stake. The one real chance to make the payoff is scheduled for the morning. This is the make or break moment. Another day is impossible.
What do you do?
