Life is full of uncertainty and hurdles. Uncoincidentally enough, these hurdles come SHORTLY before our biggest breakthroughs.
Here at the Branning Group, we recently flew our team into Redding for a company wide meeting. It was a great time of connection and brainstorming of new strategies on how to best serve our clients.
However, starting on the first day our meetings, we began running into some obstacles…
Obstacles Breed Resilience
We met in the office at 8 am to a broken AC. By 11 am, the inside of the office was well over 80 degrees. We had to pivot and meet at my house for the remainder of the weekend to continue our scheduled meetings.
After the meetings, we were unable to meet until the middle of the following week (not ideal considering how much momentum we experienced over those two days we spent together)
A couple of days following this, we experienced our first large chargeback. It crippled us internally and subsequent paychecks were delayed.
That Friday (the same day the bank wouldn’t issue payroll), we began to smell a nasty odor in the hallway outside our office. A couple of my team members went to investigate and had found sewerage had started filling the floor of the basement. Within an hour the smell was unbearable. The problem was fixed the following Monday and we came back to the office on Wednesday.
Then finally this past weekend, our office AC broke for the 2nd time. Once again, it took the property management company a couple of days to fix it and we were able to return to the office on Wednesday.
And in all of this since our company, our sales team had failed to meet their numbers WEEKLY meeting and my local Redding team has not been able to meet in office for an uninterrupted week.
When I see opposition like this, I can view it in one of two ways. I can either get discouraged and allow disappointment to begin to nest in my heart OR I can take it as a signpost. I’ll admit, this has been a trying and frustrating time but in the midst of it, I discovered an important truth.
Inconvenience: A Signpost
I’ve found in life that inconvenience can come before the breakthrough. Too many times we setbacks as a “sign” that we going in the WRONG direction. I believe the opposite to be true. When I face opposition, especially like what I’ve experienced recently, it’s a beautiful (yet painful) reminder that I’m going in the right direction.
Moving Forward
Setbacks are inevitable. In fact, the more successful you become, the higher your risk of facing opposition and failure becomes. But I also believe that every mishap can be a stepping-stone to success if we start looking at them differently–as opportunities for growth rather than as “signs” that we’re going in the wrong direction. What breakthrough do you hope to achieve with your own business?
