Two weeks ago, our company won an award and we had some seats for a dinner. Usually the partners attend these things but apparently no one wanted to go so it was passed down. This happens sometimes. Some of us were ‘voluntold’ to attend and here I was with two other coworkers. I don’t actually know what we won but that’s not important. The real highlight was who we sat with.. Bill Ackman. Two of us knew the name and nothing else. Everyone, I mean everyone came over to chat with this dude. I was looking around for our server to bring me my boeuf au jus.
Over dinner, he was mostly chatting with the people he knew at the table. Then he shared stories with the rest of us that were surprisingly personal. He described the shitty nyc apartment he lived in (which really wasn’t shitty at all). He talked about his daughter’s education, and the overall college system how the liberal environment shaping minds. It didn’t feel like a lecture, more like a stream of thoughts, a mix of anecdotes, humor, and reflections he just blurted out. Our table definitely gave him the stage. I think I said a total of 4 sentences throughout that entire dinner. One of the sentences was, “I didn’t get au jus with my entree”... Disaster. Maybe he thinks I don’t speak english.
I don’t even know why we were seated with him. Apparently there were other important people at our table but clearly I don’t have the network or keep a pulse on the happenings in the world to tell me these things lol. So yea… we won an award for something and they switched my entree with the halibut entree; which was cooked to perfection.
“Minor Vendor Slip” is a long term risk.
September 9, 2023