On missed opportunities

The other night I had the good fortune to eat dinner with a senior executive in one of the world’s largest and most powerful firms. He was a fascinating person who embodied the fast-paced, fiercely intelligent, and forward-looking culture of the company. I was impressed by his conversation, and in being so impressed I mistakenly wrote myself off. I don’t know how it happened, but it was somewhere between the fried oyster appetizers and my poached rabbit entrée. Dang, rabbit tastes good. I know I’m a horrible woman for saying so but it’s true!
But back to Michael. Halfway through my delightful rabbit, he looked at me and asked: “Mandy, what do you want to do with your MBA?”
My answer was halting and I didn’t take the golden opportunity to show him just how passionate I was about being at Darden and what I was going to do with this MBA after May 2009. I failed to outline my pointed, two-prong approach that would lead me after a dozen years from CPG to 3rd world policymaking. I didn’t read his cues of interest, including “Really? You had an epiphany?” when I briefly mentioned the way my “reason for being” came to me while running in the Oregon woods on a drizzly December day in 2005.
What the hell was I thinking? When will I have such an audience again?
I should have looked to my left at our Executive Director of Corporate Relations, paused; and said “Time me, Everette…” Then I would have launched into a succinct and thorough explanation of why I get out of bed in the morning. Had I done that I guarantee it would have changed the course of our conversation.
But alas, I took the chance that he wouldn’t be interested and edited my words; instead of taking the other chance that he wouldn’t care and said it anyway.
I won’t bore you about it in this post (there I go again, getting out the pen to check myself off the list), but promise to do so another day.
So, missed opportunities aside, I now want you to ponder something that came up on a plane last weekend. I sat next to a Tuck grad from General Mills (small world, Mom!) and she asked me which movie star I looked like. I’ve heard 3. You decide between Katie Holmes, Sarah Jessica Parker, or Debra Messing.