It's All About Relationships

By Terry Epton, Incentive online columnist

We Met in a Raucous Pub in Dublin...

This past week, I was pleased to spend time with one such friend while in Chicago at the Motivation Show. Eugene DeVilliers was born and raised in South Africa, schooled in France and now resides in Auckland, New Zealand.  He is an incentive company owner in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and India. He is one of my closest friends. Several years ago we met in a Dublin pub that was as colorful as all Ireland. If I recall correctly, it was named Rosie’s and it was loud, smoky and a true slice of authentic Dublin. I had just finished taking my exam for the CITE certification and I needed a beer. I remember thinking the place was too good to be true...I also wondered if I might perhaps wind up leaving with a black eye! I struck up a conversation with a rather big guy who looked to be friendly and we shared some pints of beer. It turned out that we were both staying at the same hotel and left the pub to head back together. As I started to look for a taxi, Eugene found a limousine and offered me a ride. He just commandeered a limo like it was the natural thing to do. As I suspected, it turned out he was in Ireland for the SITE International Conference, as I was. We found ourselves hanging out together at the conference and even joining in a “Yard of Beer” contest, which Eugene had little trouble winning. Eugene is one of the smartest, wisest people I know. Not in a million years would we have met if it were not for the incentive industry.