You are a business man. So you wear
suits or carefully curated “office casual” attire, key factors in your success.
But know that socks can mess that up.
Ever show up wearing your $295 leather-soled and -heeled shoes, and half way
through the meeting with your boss she notices that one of your socks is black
and the other Navy blue?
Depending on the environment, that
could look like a lack of attention to detail. And leaving that impression
could later come out sideways.
Believe me. It happens.
The pettifoggery of some
bureaucracies – corporate or governmental – can be astonishing in its breadth, reach, and stickiness.
“It’s the little details that are
vital,” said the legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. “Little things
make big things happen.”
My answer to this potential
career-busting threat was Sock Management. I would only buy black
cotton-polyester blend Goldtoe brand socks. Always.
But, there came a Christmas when …
… the spirit hit and I resolved to
become more flexible, creative, and cheerful by getting out of my sock-buying
rut – a portentous decision that threatened my Sock Management program and had an
immediate effect on my corporate persona.
Suddenly I was washing, drying, and
sorting all manner of sock designs, the most conservative of which were new Navy
blue cotton-polyester-blend Goldtoe socks.
But as we all know, washers – or
maybe it’s dryers – will occasionally eat a sock. And that just kills Sock
Management, because the sorting exercise starts looking like a committee of 16
squirrels chasing 15 nuts.
And, as sure as Santa, the day came
when I’m sitting in the CEO’s office discussing world-changing possibilities when
I looked down, and one sock was black, the other Navy blue.
So that’s how I came to be a
free-lance writer, editor, and raconteur.
Sock Management. Keep it simple.
