I wish to share a major judgment in error on my part with my ATF.  She is very friendly, funny and a talkative lady. In the past year I have learned bits and pieces of her personal life.  Just recently I decided to connect all the dots and some of the missing ones and display to her what a "smart" guy I am.  Obviously it was a major dumb thing to do.  Now my ATF has is no longer seeing me (very sad).  Just a word to the wise from someone who wasn't wise at all, keep it professional

Nuvela Man, you've learned something I learned also, in a very short time:  This is a business relationship.  You can have wonderful events in business: dinners, golf, tennis, seminars, etc....we all do in our daily business lives.  But you crossed the line and your advice is well given and..on my side..taken as well.

She was going to say "You figured me out.  From now on, I'm yours for free!"

Providers are like anyone else, they don't like to be "profiled."  Especially since their livelihood makes privacy a matter of professional necessity and personal safety.  She let her guard down with you but now I wonder if she's going to seem less personable with her future clients.

-- Modified on 9/21/2007 7:10:24 PM

My ATF is also very friendly, funny and talkative as well. She is very open about a lot of aspects of her life but I never push her to go beyond what she is comfortable talking about. I can't imagine having to go more than a week or two at a time without her smile, her joy for life, her goofy sense of humor or her absolutely unbelievable BBBJ's....and as long as I don't do anything really stupid I won't have to...

Well I guess you had to suffer for all of us to learn.  Sorry bout your ATF.

Without giving away any sensitive information (obviously), what exactly did you do?  Were you "stalking" her, like showing up unexpectedly during her personal time?

No stalking was involved.  I shared with her my version ,as one contributor has described,as her personal profile.

I couldn't agree more!