A Tale of Two Vancouvers
How nine successful business owners purchased train tickets to the wrong Vancouver.
I got on a train with eight other business owners to travel to Vancouver, Canada for a week-long business retreat. We had purchased our tickets independently from a URL to the Amtrak route, shared by our organizer weeks in advance. We were all looking forward to a relaxing Amtrak ride to our Canadian destination, complete with the requisite lols and romance of a carefree northbound rail-based journey to the land of hockey, toques, and gravy on everything.
We were seated in the front two cars as the train was slowly pulling out of Seattle’s King Street Station when we heard this announcement:
“Welcome to Amtrak trip 513 with stops in Tukwila, Tacoma, Vancouver, and Portland, Oregon…”
My first thought was, “That poor announcer-person, she must be so embarrassed! She just incorrectly announced our destination!”
We, of course, are headed north, to Vancouver, Canada. Not south to Vancouver, Washington. Why would we want to go there? Hahaha…silly announcer!
But a quick glance around our railcar began to confirm a sinking suspicion. I noticed not one of the other passengers had even raised an eyebrow at the announcement.
One of my travel friends Jean and I locked eyes across the aisle in dawning realization; we were headed in the entirely wrong direction to the wrong Vancouver! A quick inquiry to the person behind me confirmed our suspicions. We were the travel dummies!
(Side note: Vancouver, WA was established in 1857 and Vancouver, BC in 1886, so the US had a 29-year head naming start. I love my Canadian brethren, but… c’mon. What were you thinking? Perhaps you had a precog on staff, and she predicted how we’d humiliate ourselves if you copied the name?)
By this time, our crew of astute business owners had mobilized and were quickly gathering our belongings, red faces aglow. The engineers realized they had some train-travel noobs on board and were braking to a stop, the train ending up a full football field’s length outside the station.
I was the first to make the rapid-fire shuffle off the train as it braked to a halt. I figured it was better to be the grand marshal of our parade of travel disruptors. The rest of my cohorts could face the contempt of the non-directionally-challenged passengers.
So, with me in the lead, we shuffled down the aisles of eight train cars to get to the platform at the back of the train. As the Amtrak worker lead us along the corridors, she kept loudly saying over her shoulder, “You know, you really need to check your ticket more closely next time.” I assume this was an attempt to overtly cast blame on us for the interruption to everybody’s trip. Thanks for that.
Lessons Learned
We were incredulous as we met in the lobby of the train station. How could this happen? After all, it said Vancouver, WA right on the train ticket — not Vancouver, BC. How could none of us have seen this glaring error while we booked tickets, received email confirmations, and printed off itineraries and tickets which we presented to the agent that day?
So, we gathered ourselves, a couple of vehicles, and carpooled north instead. We arrived on time and the butt of our own jokes.
But as I was reflecting on this experience, a few lessons jumped out to me.
Groupthink is real.
Even though we each had all the information needed to make the correct decision, we blindly followed the lead of the person who booked the wrong ticket and had sent us a link to that itinerary. Not one of us noticed the massive discrepancy in the details of the trip.
It’d be easy to dismiss us as goofballs at best and idiots at worst, but there is a bigger reality at play: We all, so often, assume that a given authority is correct and then self-indoctrinate ourselves into a wrong decision. It pays to be critical (especially when consuming popular media).
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve drunk the Kool-aid in my pursuit of my version of success. A charismatic leader with persuasive ideas, an accomplished businessperson with a tempting offer, a view of the world interpreted through the lens of my particular upbringing or socio-economic position — all of these things have led me far astray from truth.
Face failure with a smile.
You’ll never find extraordinary success unless you’re willing to fail from time-to-time. And if you screw up, you might as well do it with energy and a smile on your face, like the one I had as I marched past all the seated passengers on my way off the train. That’s not to say it won’t be embarrassing and even painful at times, but don’t avoid the possibility of a failure or you’ll never get anywhere.
I have experienced some delicious failures in my career as an entrepreneur-in-the-making. My wife keeps promising to make a shadow box with all my old business cards proudly mounted (she keeps at least one from each venture). I believe that I’d spontaneously erupt into tears, perverse laughter, or convulsions if I saw that on the wall. Although those experiences have made me much of who I am today, some of it is tough to relive.
Shrug (or laugh) it off and start again.
Since we know that failure is inevitable when trying to get somewhere better than where you were before, you might as well embrace the fact that you need to take yourself less seriously. Just buck up! Our group not only laughed at ourselves during our goof up, but we were also lovingly mocked by a number of the Seattle area business owners who didn’t take the wrong train to the Vancouver retreat.
(By the way: I was thoroughly impressed by Amtrak’s willingness to immediately stop the train, get us safely off, and refund 90% of our ticket price even though this was clearly our fault.)
Take a train in the wrong direction
Ok, don’t purposively get on a train the wrong direction, that’s kind of dumb. But you should get moving and be willing to make mistakes along the way. And maybe I’ll see you on my next adventure in the wrong direction.
