Starting with the alarm, the day began perfectly. I actually heard the alarm and we headed out by within 5 minutes of the plan. In fact, we arrived at the airport, found parking and made it into the terminal all with amazing ease. At first, it seemed that I would have to say goodbye while he was waiting in the Frontier line -- since my flight was via American and there was quite a line.
We re-connected at security though - he was being scanned and I had the dubious distinction of an upper body pat down. Neither of those things matter; not really important to the story except for the fact that we re-connected thanks to the TSA need to randomly examine travelers.
The best part: our gates were only 3 apart -- so I was able to sit with him for about 20 minutes before his flight (his left at 6.25, mine at 7.05). That was sheer joy.
Who is the he?
My newly minted Marine -- my son Chris.
He was headed back to the next phase of training -- while I was headed to discuss the future in a completely different part of the country. The beauty of all of this though was the unexpected connection that we were able to snag. Looking back on those moments - it actually all just seemed to flow to that connection point.
And, as usual, this reminds me of something important in the Web Analytics world.
During the implementation phase of your Web Analytics tool -- you may be worried that you’re missing something -- that you won’t be able connect all of the dots -- make the appropriate connections. If you have a deep understanding of the tool’s capabilities coupled with a more than cursory understanding of your business goals -- you will be fine. In fact, you must “get” both in order to make the effort worth your while (I love that saying: if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well) -- else you’ll have a tool that merely drops a few data points in your lap; or, possibly worse: one that gives you so much that you’ll be overwhelmed (and then stop looking at the metrics).
You can make a connection with your reporting tool: snag a little time, learn the capabilities of the tool (work with your vendor, take a course, read / read / read) and then map your goals to your tool. Connect the dots, let it flow -- you will get more meaning from your reporting tool -- and that is a beautiful thing.
