You thought you had this whole eating thing down pat. Now you learn that there's a whole set of rules to dining with prospective clients. You do some research and find information about everything from what knife to use with what food and what type of food is acceptable to eat, since you don't want to be messy. You think that if you can memorize these things that you'll be able to get more deals done. However, dining etiquette doesn't matter at all when it comes to getting business deals done. What matters is your ability to get absolutely hammered and joke around with your potential clients. Look, you've probably been in an office all day or traveling to get to this meeting, and your clients probably have been dealing with the same thing. It's understandable that there will be some drinks, but you probably didn't realize how many. You imagined that there would at least be some level of restraint when it came to the number of drinks consumed, especially si...