A good friend had just such an opportunity recently and his good fortune provided me with one of the increasingly rare instances when I envy those who are still in the game.
My envy only really comes from the fact that some chaps are constantly able to fly away to exotic destinations at the expense of the client, while I'm stuck at home, retired and having to foot the bill for all the luxurious travels that TaiTai demands.
My friend visited a Latin American tropical paradise on the pretext of work. While nominally using the trip to gather information about a potential client, he squeezed in some research on a personal matter too.
You see, he had heard so much about the country in question that he was considering buying a home there. With a large enough nest egg from all the years of slogging away at various investment banks, he figured, why not take the plunge?
So when he spotted a proposal to potentially fund a client in that very place, he made sure he was assigned to the deal. A business class trip, a few rounds of golf, some piña coladas and visits to various properties in classy areas and he was sold — even seeking out watering holes closest to some of the houses he viewed.
Once he had found a half-decent whisky bar, his last doubts fell away and he started to picture himself retiring in the country.
As for the client, well, he didn’t make it past the bank’s credit committee.