I’ve been thinking about what to say in this blog all week. Then a few things happened today that I wanted to highlight.
The Morning’s Adventure
It started right away this morning. I signed up about a month ago to attend a coffee meet and greet with some other female entrepreneurs. It was being held at a venue 29 miles away from my house. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but this morning I didn’t feel like going. Then I recalled that at the point I signed up, I was willing to do it because I need to network with other business owners to grow my business. And in order to keep my son out of daycare or aftercare or whatever, I have to be willing to grow my business and get out of my comfort zone. Since I am willing to do just about anything to achieve that goal, I went.
The meet and greet was a little awkward for me at first because I am insecure about walking into a room full of strangers and introducing myself. But after driving 29 miles, you better believe I was doing it. 🙂
The Conundrum
It was a neat event, everybody got 5 minutes to talk about their business and ways in which the other people in the room could help them. Then another person in a financial field started talking. The things she started saying were not only incorrect and irresponsible, they were bordering on fraudulent. I hadn’t spoken yet, so she had no way of knowing that I have a long background of working in the securities industry and hold a few licenses myself. (inactive at this point, but you don’t forget the basics like don’t promise a return on the client’s money.)
This is a group I wanted to get to know to use as a connection for my business. I didn’t know what to do. Contradicting this lady’s advice and having what could only be an unpleasant conversation in this room full of people was WAY out of my comfort zone. It turned out I was not willing to call her out at the time. But a few people were really excited and talked about making an appointment with her to pursue her irresponsible investment advice. That really worried me and made me feel sick.
The Decision
After texting with a former colleague to confirm I wasn’t out of line with my opinion and thinking about it for hours, I decided I am willing to file a report about the things I heard. I cannot in good conscience let people invest in this product she was talking about knowing that at best she is ignorant of the risk and at worst is purposely scamming clients.
So could I still lose the connections I made this morning? Possibly. Some of them probably followed my page and might read this blog. But I’m willing to take that risk because it’s the right thing to do.
The Rest of the Day
I followed up that interesting morning by a visit to the girl I mentor. It was my first visit with her this year, and she moved over the summer. It wasn’t easy to find her and I had to put in quite a bit of effort. I could have easily just let it go, but I was willing to go the extra mile, because she needs a steady influence in her life. When I got to her school and I could see her jumping up and down with excitement while I got buzzed in, I knew I made the right decision to be willing to continue.
I followed up that visit by going home and working out in the blazing heat because I decided this morning that I was going to be willing to get that done. After that, I might not be willing to do much more today. It was a pretty sweaty situation.
The Point?
I’m not some morally righteous person – I have good and bad traits just like anyone else. My point is that when you are faced with a decision, it is very helpful to stop and think about you are willing to do and what you are not willing to do.
The flip side of this thinking is constantly telling yourself that you CAN’T do this or that, and that simply is not true. You CAN do all kinds of things, but are you willing? And if you’re not willing, that’s fine, but realize it, do whatever it takes to adjust to that realization, and move on. Don’t make excuses to yourself or anybody else.