- Losing the only proto type Psion Series 7 we had on a train the night before we had to pitch our ideas in Germany.
Regret obviously, we had been drinking at the airport before getting on the train home. I kept my job but so embarrassed and we didn't get the contract. Instead we ended up with the rival company at the time, which turned out great.
- Falling in love playing Everquest and moving to another continent to be together then ending up to be one of the first remote teleworkers from another continent.
Do it again! So worth 18 months of paper work and waiting, leaving my old country behind and jumping into my first real relationship. It still took 2-3 years for the tax offices to sort out where exactly I had to pay what taxes, ended up paying income tax in 2 countries for the first two years.
- Getting in the wrong plane and ending up in San Jose CR, instead of San Jose CA.
Technically it was the office that screwed up buying the wrong ticket, but I was late, tired, not paying attention, terminal was under reconstruction so I didn't have time to look at signs, got ushered into the final bus to the plane waiting on the tarmac. When they started handing out custom forms for Peru (mistake, later changed them for Costa Rica) it dawned on me I had been flying the wrong way all the time. I was working on the plane, not looking outside much...
I ended up wandering the airport for a bit over an hour before getting back on the same plane, they wouldn't let me re-route to California. Customs back in Toronto was amused with my short vacation...
- Defending the company I worked for through multiple day depositions in a patent battle with the entire access to the US market at stake.
Most stressful time of my life, but gained a lot of respect for patent law firms. They really do know their stuff (well they should for $10 million legal fees) and were excellent at prepping me to get grilled by 3 lawyers of the accusing law firm in front of the camera for 2 days. 3 day trip with 9 hour drive each way. (was fed up with flying lol)
Of course the whole patent system is a load of horseshit. It all ended up settled under NDA after my company launched a counter attack by buying up patents the opposition violated. Then we quickly started patenting our stuff with basically general nonsense patents to avoid further legal trouble. Now I have a bunch of patents under my name and became a part of the problem :/
- Getting dragged into the divorce battle of my sister and ending up in a long legal battle over a loan I made them 5 years prior.
Eventually I got served by her ex, had to defend myself in Dutch court where the Judge ruled the written contract void. I lost a lot of respect for the Dutch legal system that day. The judge was long time buddies with the opposition lawyer, old boys club, while my representation was a young ambitious women. She was excellent but the judge kept cutting her off while being jovial and going along with his buddy lawyer. (who also arrived over an hour late for court) It was a very bizarre experience, very different from the professionalism in the patent battle.
My lawyer wanted to file appeal yet the stress of getting sued from another country was weighing heavily on our (wife and I) relationship so decided to pay up and leave it at that. The lawyers basically got to split the money left on the loan on my sister's ex part. (40K legal fees, likely for him as well)
Never loan family any money! And Dutch law doesn't respect written, notarized contracts.
I live a quiet relaxed retired life now :) The craziest thing I do nowadays is going for a 25km run in -15c to +35c degree heat. (Cold is worse, heat can be managed by following the river!)
