Everyone has embarrassing moments. Think you've messed up more than the next guy? Find out by entering Rhonda's Most Embarrassing Business Moment contest.

        Grand prize winners receive copies of two books: The Secrets of Houdini to help you escape difficult situations, and my book, The Successful Business Plan: Secrets and Strategies to help you succeed in spite of those mistakes. Contest entry rules at the end of the column.

        Here are examples of embarrassing moments from businesspeople I know; see if you can beat these:

        • A calendar salesman called on a funeral home and made a huge sale. He was so excited that as he left the building, he literally jumped up in the air and shouted with glee. He ran straight into a funeral party, and a mourner commented: “Gosh, you must be happy Harry's dead.”

        • A saleswoman was showing a customer an unbreakable coffee mug and used one of her standard lines: “This is so tough, you could throw it against the wall and it wouldn't break.” The customer picked it up; threw it at the wall. Of course, the mug shattered in little pieces. But the saleswoman recovered nicely: “That's how we do our market research.” They both laughed, and she got an order.

        • A new salesman had previously made sales of only $100 or $200. When he finally got his first big order — $2,000 — he got up, shook hands with the customer, and walked straight into the wall.

        • A West Coast marketing consultant who regularly arises at 6 a.m. to make East Coast phone calls often gets so busy that the package delivery man regularly catches her still in her nightgown at 3 in the afternoon. Once, when she saw the delivery man in town while she was with an important client, the delivery man commented on how much he envied her being able to stay in her nightgown and watch soap operas all day.

        I've got one of my own. To prod myself to stay focused, I've set my screen-saver function to scroll messages whenever my computer goes into sleep mode. These messages are things such as “Get off the phone and get back to work ... ” or “Shouldn't you be writing?”

        I use the same laptop when I give speeches.

        One day, I forgot to turn the screen-saver function off, and in the middle of my talk, my computer went into sleep mode. I didn't know why the audience was suddenly laughing until I turned around and saw my messages scrolling across the large screens.

        Have you had an embarrassing business moment you wished had never happened? Tell me about it, or do you know of a true experience that happened to someone else?

How to enter

        ; To enter “Rhonda's Most Embarrassing Business Moment” contest, e-mail a short description of an experience, along with your name and address and the type of your business. If you'd like, I'll gladly withhold your name from publication. Three grand prize winners will be awarded.

        Don't be too embarrassed to share - we've all been there! Send your entries to me at Rhonda@RhondaOnline.com or mail to Rhonda Abrams at 555 Bryant St, number 180, Palo Alto, CA 94301. The deadline is May 20. Winners will be chosen at the sole discretion of me and my dog, Cosmo.

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