He threw down the phone. Leaned back in his office chair and put his feet up on the desk. Seeing his scruffy shoes and stretched socks he threw his feet back to the floor in disgust.
“We were very impressed with your proposal,” they had said, “but we decided to go with the others.”
We were very impressed with your proposal, but we decided to go with the others. He mimicked. We were very impressed with your proposal, but we decided to go with the others. We were very impressed with your proposal, but we decided to go with the others.
Gaaaaad. He was tired of hearing that.
He left his office. Down the stairs. Out the door. Took a left turn to the park and soon he was lying on the grass looking up at the thick foliage of an enormous tree. He wondered just what kind of tree it was.
His fiftieth birthday was coming up in three weeks. Oh how the years had flown by. During many of them, he made excuses for himself. “You’re young. You’re still learning. You’ll yet make your impact.”
But that wouldn’t cut it anymore. FIFTY! My Gaaaaaaaaaaad. And what have I accomplished?!
Not that he’d been a complete failure. He’d had his weeks or months of impressive success. But it never felt planned. It never felt like he had really made anything happen. No. It was always a struggle. It’s one thing to wrestle when you’re confident that you know what you’re doing. It’s quite another thing to wrestle when you can see neither your opponent, nor the edge of the ring. You’re groping, pushing and pulling, ending the day exhausted from long hours of doing. But what did you actually do?
After an hour he got up. Brushed off the dead grass. He had decided. He would stop. He would not continue doing what he had always done.
He was frightened by the prospect of stopping. It’s not like he had cash saved up or anything. But for the first time he felt more frightened by the thought of continuing as he had been. Of suffering one more day living in fear and kowtowing to worries. He didn’t yet know the right way, but he had made up his mind. He was going to give himself the time he needed to figure it out once and for all.
That was the day he walked off the carousel.
And he never looked back.
——-
It’s December 30, 2015. The eve of a new year.
Over the past weeks I’ve been talking with more and more people reaching their fiftieth – but not their potential.
So if you’re hitting a big number… like 2016… and you’re ready to step off the carousel, you get priority this January.
If you’re ready to figure out how to create a steady, predictable flow of ideal customers and clients, click here to request a chat with me.
And happy new year. 🙂
Dov
