Trading Places

Sorry I missed posting last night, but the owner, a five-star management consultant, and I were out at a late, four hour business dinner, eating a four-course meal of lobster and veal. I feel like Eddy Murphy in trading places. Better this than feeling like Dan Aykroyd. In a week we fly to Oslo for more meetings. I just started, and I have become the owner's right hand man. There is no down time to this job.

The owner is a genius with a background in finance. I am fascinated watching him work. He has a deliberate, slow, methodical manner of conducting business that belies that fact that he probably had two hours of sleep, drank three gallons of coffee, has twitchy feet and it biting his nails. In other words, he is completely amped up, just beneath the calm surface. The juxtaposition is stark, but he is brilliant. His methods are in polar opposition to the CEO of my previous job- an east-coast lawyer with a very quick, in-your-face approach, who made snap decisions and was guided by gut as much as anything.

I am learning an amazing amount each day. This job lies on the periphery of the management consulting business- a high buck industry filled with snake-oil salesmen at every turn. I assure you, we are the good guys, though. Purists. This is quite an adventure on its own merits- nevermind the fact that is happening in a foreign country! There are times where I really feel like I've been plucked from a different universe and dropped into a completely different reality.