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My family thinks I want a jet

Written by: Keith Ferrazzi

Article Overview: When I was at Starwood, I shared a corporate jet with a group of folks. And when I worked for Mike Milken, I traveled a lot with him on his jet. I always enjoyed it as a nice perk, but I couldn’t help but think how silly some people were to say things like “I need my jet.”

My family thinks I want a jet

When I was at Starwood, I shared a corporate jet with a group of folks. And when I worked for Mike Milken, I traveled a lot with him on his jet. I always enjoyed it as a nice perk, but I couldn’t help but think how silly some people were to say things like “I need my jet.”

But with the recent changes in security and a little bad luck, traveling has been ridiculous. So ridiculous that a private jet is sounding really good right now.

Couple weeks ago everything worked perfectly. Flew to Atlanta for dinner one night. The next morning at 5am I was on my way to Phoenix to give a speech. On to New York that evening to prepare to give a breakfast talk in Princeton, New Jersey, the next morning. Then took a car down to Philadelphia to give a talk and flew home for dinner that evening. That was three days, five cities. Everything worked perfectly. Even when I was leaving luggage inside security so I could get in and out quickly. No problems.

The next trip was quite different. Left San Antonio for State College, PA. I was scheduled to arrive in Pittsburgh at 11pm and then take a car to State College and arrive around 2am. Well, delays put me in Pittsburgh at 2am. Arrived in State College at 5am.

Hung out there for a couple hours, gave my talk over lunch. Then I was off to Chicago. After the two hour drive to Harrisburg’s airport, my flight was delayed. Then there was a problem during the flight that caused us to simply fly around to dump fuel so we could land safely – back in Harrisburg, at 9pm. The next flight, if we were lucky, they said, would leave around midnight.

Since I had a lunch speaking engagement, I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast at 7am after my 2 hours of “sleep.” I was starving. Security was closed so we couldn’t leave. No concessions were open. But there was a Starbucks there and all of their stuff was still out and accessible.

So after a minute of staring at the cookies, sandwiches, water, and more, I picked up a water and a cookie and left $10. I thought that was perfectly reasonable.

As I was walking away, a gentleman came out from the back and said, “Excuse me, sir, you have to come back here. That’s stealing.”

“Oh, no worries. I left you ten dollars for probably four dollars worth of stuff.”

“No you don’t understand. The cash register is closed.”

“Well, do you mind if I just leave the money here and ring it up tomorrow morning or just take note of it? I haven’t had anything since breakfast.”

“No, it’s not our issue. Protocol would suggest that if you’re delayed and there’s a problem that you should go to American Airlines to feed you.”

“You’re Starbucks. You’ve got the food here. What’s the big deal?”

“Well, I’m the only one here.”

“That’s okay. I don’t need anyone else here. I only need you here.”

“You know what, sir. I’m going to call the police. In addition, when I do leave, I’m going to make sure the cameras are on here so you won’t be able to take anything.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, thinking that I couldn’t wait to tell this story to my friends at Starbucks, including one of the early founders, who’s a good friend, Arthur Rubinfeld.

Protocol suggests... Well, Starbucks protocol sent me away hungry. And the thought of a private jet tasted better than ever.

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Article Tags: 5am, bad luck, concessions, corporate jet, couple hours, couple weeks, fly, hours of sleep, luggage, lunch, mike milken, next morning, philadelphia, phoenix, princeton new jersey, private jet, san antonio, sandwiches, speaking engagement, starbucks



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