Scott Smigler's BlogFounder of Exclusive Concepts and Conversions On Demand

I was at a party this weekend and towards the end I started thinking about something that has always bothered me… It takes way too long to say goodbye!

When I am ready to leave a party, or a social gathering, or even a business meeting – the only thing that I can think about is leaving. Either I’m tired, or I’m bored, or I have somewhere to go to, and I can’t think about anything but leaving.

My desire to leave is generally not a commentary on the party itself. I had a good time this weekend with people that I like a lot – but the fact stands that when I’m ready to go, I’m ready to go.

Well, this time, when I was ready to go, I turned to one of my friends and I predicted that it would take our group 28 minutes to leave after initiating the “goodbye” process. Fortunately, my estimation was a little bit off. The goodbye process only took 24 minutes.

I think the longest goodbye process I’ve experienced was at my high school reunion. It easily took 2 hours to say goodbye. I’d make it to the door and then one of the people I was with would get pulled into conversation. Then she would make it to the door and I would get pulled into a conversation. After an hour, when I thought I was free and clear, the husband of one of my teachers pulled me aside… he said, in a skeptical tone, I hear you have your own Internet business. Of course, I answered, “yes.” He then asked me to explain the world of Internet marketing to him, after which a one-hour Q&A session followed. Normally I love to be asked about what I do… but not once the goodbye process starts.

The next time you’re at a party time how long your goodbye process lasts.