After arriving home late one night last October -- after yet another trip back from Newark International Airport in New Jersey -- I looked down at the set of keys in my hand and was not sure which one would open the front door to my house. I slowed my pace to concentrate, and it was at that moment that I realized things were getting out of hand.
Shaken by this experience, I went to my office the next day, and looked at the month of October on my wall calendar. Three major trade shows took place in October, all of which have importance to the U.S. market -- Marmomacc in Verona, Italy; the International Tile & Stone Show (ITSS) in Las Vegas; and StonExpo in Los Angeles. As a result, I had been out of town for over 20 days during the course of the month. Going beyond numbers, I missed most of the Northeast's fall foliage season, almost all of the Major League Baseball playoffs and my 34th birthday. (Tearing down a trade show booth at StonExpo, after all, hardly qualifies as a birthday “celebration.â€)