I think I might have just accepted one speaking engagement too many!  After years of patiently bearing the brunt of my grueling travel schedule, my wife Clare has finally put her foot down.  Sorry folks – if you want me to speak at your meeting, these are the new rules!

After nearly 24 years of my husband disappearing off to conferences, speaking engagements and sundry other events, I’ve finally got to the point of putting my foot down. Andrew usually claims he doesn’t want to go to Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, the middle of nowhere; he simply has ‘a rather large sense of civic duty.’ My opinion: he’s just someone who can’t say ‘no’. Someone asks him to speak, to do them a favor, and he’s off. I’ve finally concluded that his health and his family deserve better, and have come up with a set of rules that we will be following from now on.

From now on, if you need him to speak you’ll have to go through ME first!

Clare’s Rules for NOT Accepting Speaking Engagements

Any request that coincides with the following is an immediate ‘sorry no can do!’

• Family birthdays or anniversaries. Last year we celebrated Andrew’s birthday on the right day for the first time in 4 years!
• Holidays such as July 4^th, Memorial Day or Thanksgiving weekend – boy are we sick of July 4^th on our own!!
• Children’s concerts or other important school events – I’m done being a single parent as far as the school goes.
• No weekends – someone needs to do the cleaning round here.
• No trips of more than 3 days – I’m not willing to walk the dog in the dark or wet more than 2 nights in a row!
• No engagements that necessitate weekend travel – coming or going
• No meetings that involve leaving or returning home in the middle of the night
• No events involving flights that are likely to be delayed or cancelled
• Nothing that involves having to eat airplane food
• Nothing that involves eating out every evening for a week
• Absolutely nothing where we end up paying for the privilege of him traveling!
• No meetings where we’re expected to pay $1000’s up front for plane tickets and wait months to get the money back – we are not a lending service!
• No boring meetings
• No summer meetings
• No meetings from which he arrives home with a week’s worth of dirty washing
• No meetings where he isn’t loved, appreciated and pampered as he would be at home

In fact, if in doubt, just assume the answer is ‘NO!’ Someone has to look after him …

Thank you!