My sales career started as a college graduate in a coffee delivery van carrying a small bag of tools covering a territory that stretched from east Portland all the way up Mt Hood and out through the Columbia River gorge, learning as I went how to repair industrial coffee equipment while not electrocuting myself in the process. From this experience I learned a lot. Listening. When my load shifted going around a sharp corner I could tell the difference between a coffee bag falling (thwack!) and a jug of chocolate syrup falling (thud!). And when I wasn’t driving I also learned to listen to customers too.Troubleshooting. Why is the coffee maker over-filling the pot? I DON’T KNOW?!?! But it’s a lot easier to try to grab the screwdriver, open it up and take a look than it is to make a 120 mile round trip back to HQ to get a new machine.Showing up. My customers were counting on me to make sure they didn’t run out of coffee - we all know what a catastrophe that can be in the morning. Sometimes they weren’t happy, like when coffee prices went up, or things weren’t working right. But regardless, they needed to see that someone cared enough to be there. I once had a customer that was lured away to an upstart competitor, I continued to show up there every week for breakfast for months… One morning the competitor’s espresso machine wasn’t working so I fixed it for them. Two weeks later cancelled service with the competitor and came back to me. And twenty-five years later they still greet me by name when I show up for breakfast.Being dependable. When I promised something I needed to deliver. Whether or not Interstate 84 was a sheet of ice or Highway 26 was snowed over. I left the coffee business to pursue a career in tech sales which is where I’ve been the last 20+ years, I’ve covered a lot of different technologies: computer chip design, file integrity monitoring, runbook automation, product design collaboration, identity & access management, cyber asset management and fraud prevention. It’s been an amazing journey. I manage responsibility for sales with some of the largest and most exciting companies in the world and I still lean on the lessons I learned in the coffee van: show up, listen, troubleshoot and be dependable. And my favorite piece of advice from Gandalf: “if in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose!”