Tips:
- Stop for a second and ask yourself if this is something you really, truly need to do. Because you’re about to have either the best or worst day of your life, and you need to be prepared for either. (In reality, it’ll be somewhere in between… but anticipate the extremes and you can handle the reality.)
- I tend to think this is obvious, but it has been pointed out that it isn’t: make sure someone knows where you are, who you’re with, and what you’re doing. Schedule a call to that someone during the meeting, and make it clear that your someone is to push the panic button if you don’t call. And when you do call, have an agreed-upon, prosaic-but-uncharacteristic code phrase ready, so that if you’re in trouble and he can overhear, your someone has a way of knowing. Basically, take care of yourself.
- Meet him in public first. Not just for the straightforward reason, but as an opportunity to watch him interact with strangers and wait-staff. If he’s rude to random people, run away before he gets his hands on you.
- While I’m thinking about it, just some general advice that applies on the first meeting and thereafter: note how he handles being wrong. Most of what you need to know about a man can be known from his reaction to his own errors.