Doing business without having an email address?!

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Four days ago I was phoned by someone who made me a job offer. He needed my services to promote his national and international(!) projects and to find him new partners and sponsors.

I have spent some of the most puzzling 25 minutes of my life and our conversation had the most surprising end for me. The guy was aiming high, as I have said: two local projects, later to be extended nationwide and a third one international (!) who needs to be promoted.

To be frank, I had the impression that I was talking with a dreamer. Not that I have something against dreamers, but I prefer those who keep their feet on the ground. Still, I said that I should give it a try and do some research before I give any judgement. So, after about 25 minutes of blah-blah, I insisted on the idea that, in order to promote something I have to know what I'm promoting and what message to give to the people, what tools to use, etc, so I asked for some data (.pdfs, links, documents) to study. And, logically, I have asked him to give me his email address. In the next second, the most surprising answer hit my ears:

  - I don't have an email address. I'm not into things like Internet and stuff. I'll keep contact with you and the collaborators on the phone. And if you need any information, just give me a call and take notes on a piece of paper. 

I say to myself: Jesus! A man without an email address! And I thought this species was extinct. More than that, a business man running three large projects but not having a humble email address! That's really, really odd to say the least. My grandmother doesn't have an email address but she is not pretending to have an inventor patent to sell and she is not planning to contact other big companies!

When I ended the conversation, my feeling that I'm dealing with an unrealistic person was increased. And the feeling of wonder about it stayed with me long after the conversation was over.

One thing is sure: Nowadays, no one can do real business without having an email address. And not having an email address brings, among others, a great loss of credibility.