A while back, I had the good fortune to attend a meeting of managers and consultants at Microsoft's downtown regional headquarters in San Francisco, where the focus was on their project management software. I had been to this gathering numerous times in the past and enjoyed every meeting. On this particular occasion, I knew that a representative of a company I had been referring business to would be attendance so that we could discuss a variety of issues. While I expected solid results from my past efforts, the report he handed me indicated that I had not only generated a staggering amount of revenue for the firm, but that I had earned a huge referral fee. In fact, it would turn out to be largest one-day financial windfall of my life.