Saturday Story Time – Wisdom in the Food Court

In about 1987, I was on my lunch-break from Forest of Jewels at Heritage Mall.  It may be hard to envision (since the mall has since been torn-down) but the food court was so busy that there were no empty tables to be had.  I gladly agreed for a young mother with her newborn to join me.  We got to talking, and she came to tell me how her and her husband had been waiting for the right time to start their family.

The right time for them had been about having job security, their home prepared, being a certain age, and achieving certain financial goals.  When they realized that they wanted a baby more than they wanted all of those other things, they delayed no further.  She told me that they were glad that they didn’t wait for “perfect timing,” because it may have never been completely perfect.

If you’re receiving this message, you’re a small businessperson or working for one.  Entrepreneurs constantly analyze their businesses and make decisions based upon their best-guesses-for-successes.  Even if the timing is not PERFECT, an entrepreneur is someone does not shy away from taking action.

Andrew Foster mentioned to me how he appreciates the “calls-to-action” that I have included in my writing.  From here forward, I’ll use the abbreviation “C2A” whenever I urge you to try something.  My C2A for today is to write down three things that you know you want to do in your life or business.  Then prioritize them 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd.  Then put a deadline for decision on each.

If you actually do this, it will do three things.  Firstly it’s a gut-check that gives you visceral feedback about committing to this course of action.  Second, it gives you a deadline, and if you’re like me you hate to let a deadline pass without taking action.  And thirdly by prioritizing, you might discover that the item you are most excited about doing, gets superseded by something more important.

I’m glad I thought about that new mom in the food court when I made the decision to buy Jana’s engagement ring.  I wasn’t settled into a career and I didn’t have money in the bank.  The timing wasn’t the greatest, but it was the right thing to do.  May 5^th will be our 22^nd anniversary, and I’m still glad that I did the right thing rather waiting for ideal timing.