Selecting The Perfect Merger Partner Is A Lot Like Selecting A Prom Date Dave Langley

I am finding that selecting the perfect merger partner is a lot like selecting a prom date. Thinking back to my high school daze..uh…that is days, I remember that there were lots of girls that I could have asked to the prom. When I started seriously thinking about prom, I remember my first thought was that I needed to ask someone fast. Get it locked down. That is the goal, right? To make sure you have a prom date. My thought process was something like this. Okay, who to take? How about her? Or maybe her? Or maybe…wow, this is serious. There are a lot of girls in this school. I can’t just ask the first one that comes along because what if a better date presents itself. And I can’t really imagine taking two girls to the prom at the same time. While interesting, it would divide my focus and probably wouldn’t turn out well. I should take some time and think about this. Make sure I ask the right girl. Do I ask a girl I know well and have built a friendship with or do I ask I girl that I don’t know but that I think I am attracted to? Do I ask someone from a different school? Do I ask a senior? Junior? Sophomore? Unbelievable how many options there are. I definitely want to go with someone that I will get along with. Girls everywhere. So many options.

So I started to prepare a mental list of girls I knew and girls I wish I knew and even fantasy girls I had not yet met. My list was in order of which girls I would like to go to the prom with the most. I then had to apply some simple filtering. Which girls did I actually have a chance with? There went the fantasy options. And the head cheerleader. And…well let’s just say the list got a little shorter. Now that I had a solid list I was free to ask…hey…what is that other guy doing? He is asking a girl on my list. What!?!? Someone beat me to punch. And then I started to panic about who else might ask the rest of the available girls before I got to them. I mean, even if I was a better option, would a girl that had said yes to someone else now go back and tell her prom date that she changed her mind so she could go with me. What would that say about the girl? So confusing.

Now the funny part about this was that it didn’t really hit me that the girls were doing some thinking of their own. Before panic set in, I just kind of figured they were waiting patiently for me to ask. I am betting their thought process went something like this. Do I even want to go to prom? I guess it depends on who asks me? Do I want to go with a friend or am I holding out for the captain of the football team? What if someone I don’t know asks me? What if someone from a different school asks me? If someone asks and they are okay but not ideal, do I say yes? What am I really looking for in a prom date? Do I ask someone? Oh the options.

And they started to mentally create their own list of possibilities.

Now it is a matter of timing and luck. Can you ask the right girl at the right time? Ask too early and she is likely going to hedge her bet and potentially wait for a better offer. Ask too late and well it is too late. Panic and ask the wrong girl and then you will likely have regrets. It is really a wonder that anyone actually goes to the prom… other than Becki and Tom.

Well, prom is approaching for Indigio. I can definitely tell you that we are going. I guess the question remains, with who?

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