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Go to Garrison Keillor's Cool Friends interview

On a trip away from Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor took time to talk to us at tompeters.com. He and Erik had a great conversation about his latest book, A Christmas Blizzard, and many other topics, including a note from Julie Christie. We know you'll enjoy reading his Cool Friends interview.

View our Archives for past interviews.

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dispatches from the new world of work

100 Ways to Succeed #18:

"Lunch Management"

We're all in sales! That's one of my recurrent themes. Or, to make it more personal: IF YOU CARE, YOU'RE IN SALES. That is, if your project Matters to you, if you have a Burning Urge to get it done ... then the Only Route is the ... Sales Route.

Which brings me to #18. I'm not begging you to become workaholics. (Whoops, maybe I inadvertently am. Since my work is my love, I'm a "Love-a-holic"—not a "workaholic"—when I spend another hour blogging. Right?) At any rate, Loveaholics-Workaholics-SalesFanatics ... DON'T WASTE A LUNCH! (Or, at least not many.)

Work is Love.
Work-Love implemented is Sales.
Sales is Relationships.
Relationships is ... LUNCH.
Clear enough, eh?

Consider each lunch an "at bat." (Hey, it's playoff time.) Four workweeks at five days each (I'm going lite on you) adds up to 20 "at bats" each month.

20 opportunities to ... have lunch with your pals.
20 opportunities to start New Relationships.
20 opportunities to nurture Old Relationships.
20 opportunities to patch up Frayed Relationships
20 opportunities to "Take a Freak to Lunch"—and learn something new.
20 opportunities to test an idea with a potential Recruit-Alliance Partner.
20 opportunities to ... MAKE A SALE.

No, I'm hardly urging you to ignore your pals. And if you "used" all 20 monthly "opportunities" to the utmost I'd think you were over the top. (Or determined to become the next Donald Trump. Or President in 2016.) I do urge you to consider Lunches as a Precious Resource. Each lunch gone is gone for good ... or some such.

20 per month. 240 per year. To a Major Leaguer, each At Bat is Precious. To a Loveaholic ... committed to her-his project ... each lunch is equally Precious.

Agree?

Tom Peters posted this on 10/19/04.