Towards the end of summer in the year 1999, while working for Merge Technologies, I was sent to Europe for a month and a half. One of the project managers from Merge, Jeff, came over there for a week while I was already there and he and I had to do a presentation at Philips world headquarters (Headquarters, good move) in Hamburg,
Germany. The computers that we were doing the presentation on had to have the latest and greatest software installed on them before the presentation. Unknown to me, there was a small bug in the software. The night before the presentation
I loaded the new software on the computers and then rebooted them as is the normal procedure. But when the computers came back up, the screens were blank and nothing worked, they were locked up tighter than a chastity belt on prom night. I stayed up all night trying to figure out a way to bypass the bug with no such luck. In the morning at breakfast Jeff asked me how things were going and I told him it wasn’t good. I told him he might want to start working on his excuses. I remember having the computers all set up two and a half hours before the presentation without
a single one of them working. Jeff came into the room and asked me how it is going. I said “No problem, I will have this fixed in plenty of time.” We also had one of our German salespersons, Peter, with us on that presentation as well. He would check in on me every five minutes as well, which didn’t help and only got on my nerves. In the end, I made a number of feverous phone calls back to the U.S. just as people were getting into the
office and with their help and with really no time to spare I got all of the computers up and running for the presentation. I would call this a mild miracle. The presentation was a success. Because of the success of the presentation, I know that Peter got a huge sale, as memory serves me it was in the neighborhood of a couple hundred thousand dollars. I never had a full understanding of our sales persons pay structure, but I know that he made a big chunk of change on this little trip to Siemens, and most of it was due to my hard work especially since I was given software with a major bug in it that I found and fixed. Let’s see how much Peter would have made if those screens were all blank during that presentation. Leaving Siemens I was the one driving the three of us back to our hotel. And I was in a good mood because I got everything to work. I have always considered myself rather savvy when it comes to directions and navigating myself around a city. Granted I have had a lot of experience. As I was driving, Peter kept telling me where to go. And I knew where I was going, so I finally said to him “Relax! I know where I am going.” To which Peter replied, “You Americans are all alike. You think you know everything.” Excuse
me. Over the next couple of minutes Peter, who just made a butt load of cash because of me, and I got into a semi heated political debate. Most of what he had to say was slamming the United States. I distinctly recall Peter making the statement “America sticks its nose into everyone else’s business.” Well I had just about had it with Peter going off on my country so I replied back. “You shouldn’t be mad at the United States. Do you know who you should be mad at?” Peter replied, “No. Who?” I said, “The Japanese.” Peter
confusingly asked, “Why?” I said, “Because if the Japanese wouldn’t have bombed Pearl Harbor, we wouldn’t have had to come over here and kick the crap out of you guys.” That shut Peter up pretty quick. Shortly after that statement, I glanced in the review mirror and noticed that Jeff was in that back seat and he had a look on his face that was half way between under shock and laughter. That night we all went out for a drink. We ended up heading down to the Red Light District in Hamburg.
I was still a little ticked off at Peter, so as were going around town, Peter would give us a bit of a history lesson. At one point he explained how one particular area was absolutely leveled in World War II. To which I replied “Boy we really bombed the shit out of you guys.” Peter also was a little irritated with me because I was taking pictures of some of the prostitutes. Apparently that is frowned upon but I told Peter “Hey, if they want to come down to where I work and take pictures, that is fine with me.” The next morning we dropped Peter off at the train station and Jeff and I headed back to our European office in Holland. On the drive Jeff told me how much he enjoyed watching me frustrate Peter but that Peter couldn’t say anything since we just scored him a major sale.
Germany. The computers that we were doing the presentation on had to have the latest and greatest software installed on them before the presentation. Unknown to me, there was a small bug in the software. The night before the presentation I loaded the new software on the computers and then rebooted them as is the normal procedure. But when the computers came back up, the screens were blank and nothing worked, they were locked up tighter than a chastity belt on prom night. I stayed up all night trying to figure out a way to bypass the bug with no such luck. In the morning at breakfast Jeff asked me how things were going and I told him it wasn’t good. I told him he might want to start working on his excuses. I remember having the computers all set up two and a half hours before the presentation without 
a single one of them working. Jeff came into the room and asked me how it is going. I said “No problem, I will have this fixed in plenty of time.” We also had one of our German salespersons, Peter, with us on that presentation as well. He would check in on me every five minutes as well, which didn’t help and only got on my nerves. In the end, I made a number of feverous phone calls back to the U.S. just as people were getting into the
office and with their help and with really no time to spare I got all of the computers up and running for the presentation. I would call this a mild miracle. The presentation was a success. Because of the success of the presentation, I know that Peter got a huge sale, as memory serves me it was in the neighborhood of a couple hundred thousand dollars. I never had a full understanding of our sales persons pay structure, but I know that he made a big chunk of change on this little trip to Siemens, and most of it was due to my hard work especially since I was given software with a major bug in it that I found and fixed. Let’s see how much Peter would have made if those screens were all blank during that presentation. Leaving Siemens I was the one driving the three of us back to our hotel. And I was in a good mood because I got everything to work. I have always considered myself rather savvy when it comes to directions and navigating myself around a city. Granted I have had a lot of experience. As I was driving, Peter kept telling me where to go. And I knew where I was going, so I finally said to him “Relax! I know where I am going.” To which Peter replied, “You Americans are all alike. You think you know everything.” Excuse 
me. Over the next couple of minutes Peter, who just made a butt load of cash because of me, and I got into a semi heated political debate. Most of what he had to say was slamming the United States. I distinctly recall Peter making the statement “America sticks its nose into everyone else’s business.” Well I had just about had it with Peter going off on my country so I replied back. “You shouldn’t be mad at the United States. Do you know who you should be mad at?” Peter replied, “No. Who?” I said, “The Japanese.” Peter 
confusingly asked, “Why?” I said, “Because if the Japanese wouldn’t have bombed Pearl Harbor, we wouldn’t have had to come over here and kick the crap out of you guys.” That shut Peter up pretty quick. Shortly after that statement, I glanced in the review mirror and noticed that Jeff was in that back seat and he had a look on his face that was half way between under shock and laughter. That night we all went out for a drink. We ended up heading down to the Red Light District in Hamburg. 
I was still a little ticked off at Peter, so as were going around town, Peter would give us a bit of a history lesson. At one point he explained how one particular area was absolutely leveled in World War II. To which I replied “Boy we really bombed the shit out of you guys.” Peter also was a little irritated with me because I was taking pictures of some of the prostitutes. Apparently that is frowned upon but I told Peter “Hey, if they want to come down to where I work and take pictures, that is fine with me.” The next morning we dropped Peter off at the train station and Jeff and I headed back to our European office in Holland. On the drive Jeff told me how much he enjoyed watching me frustrate Peter but that Peter couldn’t say anything since we just scored him a major sale.
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