I was just at the Pacific Coast Builders’ Conference in San Francisco. Though this was only my second visit, PCBC has always been one of my favorite shows. The laid-back vibe, the downtown San Francisco locale. It’s just so much more, well, West Coast than a show in Las Vegas or Orlando or Atlanta or Chicago.

Like K/BIS, and IBS, PCBC was significantly smaller than in years past. Where once it took up all three halls of the Mascone Center, this year it couldn’t fill one.

But also like the other shows, there was a sense of optimism in the air, both by attendees and exhibitors. People are starting to recognize that being curled up in the fetal position in the corner, afraid of the light, is the wrong way to be. They’re starting to make an effort to lead and to put themselves in front of customers.

Will that be the spark this economy needs? I’m no economist. It’s very possible that the optimism is misplaced and that there are fundamental problems with the housing market that still need to be resolved.

I do know this: The optimism can’t hurt, and it sure feels nice.

Thanks to yesterday’s Linchpin Meetup in Milwaukee, I now have an autographed Seth Godin trading card on my desk. It stares at me, asking, “What would Seth Godin do?”

So that’s my daily inspiration to not let the Lizard Brain win. To focus on the important work of being original, taking risks, leading.

It doesn’t always work. Just today I sat down and watched most of Brazil-North Korea in the World Cup. But hey, it’s the World Cup!

And in fairness, the card was still in my briefcase at that time.

Meet Katrina. She’s a bartender at Smyth, a restaurant inside the Iron Horse Hotel in Milwaukee.

And she’s psycho about her wine glasses being clean.

Sit down at the bar at Smyth, and if she’s not making one of the establishment’s signature cocktails, helping a patron select a wine, or discussing the specials, she’s polishing her crystal wine glasses. Working with tremendous speed, her hand and cloth a blur, she polishes every last smudge and fingerprint off the stemware, holding them up to the light to check her work.

This shows the difference between doing a good job and being passionate.

Her cocktails are delicious, and she’s very friendly and adept at engaging customers in conversation. But so are a lot of bartenders.

People who see her in action, cleaning those glasses, get the message quickly. Katrina sweats the little things. She is motivated by attaining perfection. You know that if she cares that deeply about eradicating dishwasher spots, she must make a killer Mojito.

Brett over at Marketing In Progress talks about how seeking consensus can often doom a project to failure, when what is needed one person with a vision and the drive to get it done.

An individual person has amazing ideas. But people only know how to dilute ideas.

A person is bold and adventurous. People are just scared and boring.

A person can easily follow his gut. People depend on a vote.

A person can get something done by tomorrow. People can’t even finalize the members of the committee by tomorrow.

A person can be clear. People confuse and are confused.

A person can lead. People stall.

True words, indeed.

Last week, I returned from the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in Chicago.  It was a good show for me.  Did some good work for my clients.  Met with some old friends in the media and with other manufacturers and agencies.  Had a couple nice meals.  Spent some quality time at the hotel bar.

It wasn’t quite as crazy as the trade shows of my youth, but it was a good nonetheless.

Speaking of my youth, I was reminded that this K/BIS was my 15th time around.  So that got me to reminiscing about my first K/BIS, back in 1996.

At that time, I was a lonely, 23-year-old broncin’ buck with only a few months under my belt at Kohler Company.  The show was in Atlanta that year, a city was a few short months away from hosting the Summer Olympics.  I recall seeing all the construction around downtown, and wondering if they would finish on time.

Speaking of the Olympics, the star of that Games was Keri Strug, the gymnast with a voice like a 4-year-old boy’s, who miraculously stuck the landing of her vault on just one leg.

The Oscar-winning movie that year was Fargo, one of my all-time favorites.  ”I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper.”

In music, the Spice Girls were hot (to this day I still don’t understand why), the Dave Matthews Band was in its prime, and 3 Doors Down was just formed.

In television, MSNBC and FOX News Channel were both launched in 1996, creating a friendly rivalry that lasts to this day.  Shows that debuted that year included 3rd Rock from the Sun, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, and Everybody Loves Raymond.

In the news, 1996 saw the conviction of the Menendez brothers, the arrest of the Unabomber, and the beginning of O.J. Simpson’s civil trial.  The Dow closed above 6,000 for the first time, and construction on the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas began.  By the end of the year, Steve Jobs was on his way toward re-taking the helm at Apple.

And in sports, the Chicago Bulls won their fourth championship and the Green Bay Packers began their journey to winning Super Bowl XXXI, which actually was played in 1997, but I had to work a Packers reference in here somehow.

That was a long time ago.  All of this nostalgia brought about by a trade show.

Perhaps I need a hobby.