A Story about Perspective

By Derek Sweeney | Director of Speaker Ideas | The Sweeney Agency

Many years ago I was invited to dinner at a friend’s house. After a very hectic week, I hadn’t had time to find a gift for the host, and searched my house frantically, looking for something suitable. The plant on the balcony? The set of exotic jams someone had given me last Christmas? But then I had a great idea...

My friend, Stuart lived up the street and I had a spare key to his house. Stuart, I remembered, always had several bottles of wine on the wine rack in his kitchen. Since he was away on holiday, I thought I’d just pop in to borrow a bottle that I could replace the next day.

So I did just that. Not knowing anything about wine, I picked a bottle with a nice looking label and headed off to dinner. At dinner, my friend Barbara decanted the wine and we sat down to eat. I don’t remember much about how it tasted, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. As I was leaving, I remembered to take the empty bottle with me to replace the next day.

The next day I headed into the local wine shop on my lunch break. I scanned up and down the aisles but could not find it anywhere. Finally, I went up to the counter and asked the sales clerk for some help, holding out the label I had removed from the bottle.  

“Do you have this wine?” I asked. 

He looked at it with eyes squinted and started making a clicking noise with his tongue.

“ No no no “ he said shaking his head  “Something like that you gotta go to the Vintage Store down on Avenue”.

In my haste, I must have selected a good bottle — $80, rather than the $20 I had expected — that Stuart had received as a gift. Just my luck! But now, it was more important than ever to replace the exact bottle. 

So, off I went to the Vintage Store and proceeded to troll the aisles, almost dreading the price tag that I KNEW would accompany this particular bottle. After twenty minutes of looking, I had once again covered every aisle but failed to find it.

I walked up to the counter. The man behind the counter looked like a college professor with horn-rimmed glasses and a sports coat, 

“Do you have this or something like it?” I asked sheepishly holding out the label

He paused looking down through his glasses as he read the details. 

“I believe we do have one,” he said as I breathed a sigh of relief.

He reached under the counter and pulled out a long chain with several keys. “This way,” he beckoned.

We walked to the back of the store to an imposing mahogany cabinet that I swear had not been there 5 mins earlier. Its leaded windows revealed a rich blackness, but no clue as to the cabinet’s contents.

The man used one key to open a lock at the top, a second key for the middle lock and a third key for the gleaming lock at the bottom. As he slowly opened the doors, internal spotlights illuminated brass plaques on each shelf, engraved with beautiful cursive script. Reaching in, he carefully withdrew a single bottle, cradling it in his arms like a newborn. 

 Its label matched the now worn label I held in my now sweaty palms. It’s price was $325.

There was nothing I could do: I had borrowed the bottle and I needed to replace it. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I told the Vintage Store Manager I would be right back as I needed to get some cash. He smiled as he carefully returned the bottle to its resting place, certain that I would never return. 

I found a bank machine and withdrew $350; $325 for the wine and $25 dollars for a cab as there was no way I was getting on the subway with something so valuable and dangerously fragile.

A few minutes later to the amazement of the doubting store clerk, I counted out $325 and left clutching the most expensive bottle of… well, anything... I had ever held.

An hour later, I placed the bottle back in the wine rack at Stuart’s and left a note.

A few days later, I ran into Stuart. 

“Stuart,” I asked, “Did you get my note about the wine?"

“Oh yes," he replied. “What did you think of it?”

“Well,” I said, ”I don’t know much about wines but it was certainly very impressive. Did you win it or get a present from someone?”

“Oh no," he replied laughing, clearly pleased. “I made the wine myself I just got that bottle out of a recycling bin.”

It's all about perspective...

To Learn more about Booking a Great Speaker, contact [email protected]

Derek Sweeney is the Director of Speaker Ideas at The Sweeney Agency.

 www.thesweeneyagency.com. 

For 15 years Derek has been helping clients find the right Speakers for their events. Derek can be reached at 1-866-727-7555 or [email protected]