Being Lazy and Sharpening the Saw...

I hosted a webcast this morning for 25 people. It was an opportunity for me to shine and I blew it.

Why? Because, for a moment, I got lazy. 

I have two PC's (well, I have more, but let's focus on the 2 I use for my work). One of them has Map Point 2006 [required for my demo] and one of them had been upgraded to the new (and pretty cool) version of Live Meeting.

So, I booted up the one with MapPoint (a great product, but a lousy home page--show some visuals, man!) about 8 minutes before the call and, of course, I had to install the Active X control and Java so I could get the new Live Meeting console.

Needless to say, it took longer (much longer) than 8 minutes.

So, I'm on the call, fumbling around, and the Live Meeting demo isn't happening. A total flop.

Embarrassing. Very.

I had figured, "hey, I've done a ton of demos, I'll be fine." When in reality, I should have [last night] double checked that everything was up and running.

I didn't.

Shame on me. Lesson learned.

The key here is, as Stephen Covey points out in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , that no matter how old or experienced you are, you need to go back and "Sharpen the Saw." Don't forget the basics and continue to practice them.

Learn from my mistake.