Disappointment

Yesterday was one of those days that you wish would just go away so the next day can get here and be a brand new start. I was supposed to do the Danskin Triathlon yesterday morning. Something I had been training for since April and something I had committed to doing with one of my best friends. It didn't happen. Friday night I sat in a little room with a Doctor that told me I had a Lumbar Sprain in my lower back and that I was to become intimately acquainted with rest over the next 3 days.

I'm pretty sure I thought he was kidding at first. And then it was all I could do to sit there, listen to his doctorly orders, and not have the welled tears in my eyes just start spilling out. I saved that for the second I got in my truck. I don't deal with disappointment well and unlike others, disappointing myself is probably the hardest thing for me to face. But I moved on through the weekend, survived, started a blog!, and will do the next Tri that comes around.

Disappointment is funny. I'm not sure why, but I've never been disappointed in losing a piece of wedding business. I've lost business due to price, location, just not jiving with the bride, not being able to accommodate their needs....almost everything. Yet I've never felt disappointed. I think it's because I know, deep down, that losing a piece of business is sometimes the best thing that can happen to you.

I can say for certain that there have been pieces of business that I wish I had lost! For instance, the times I've been hired (come to find out) to be the personal gopher of the day. I had a wedding where everything was established in previous meetings of what I was to decorate, set-up, oversee, etc. Then 2 days before the wedding, I was being told that I would be running errands, delivering rentals back to the store the day after, babysitting! The list goes on. I'm not good at saying "no". I'm a people pleaser by nature. But that crossed the line and I was very proud of myself for professionally saying "no." Which is not easy to do when dealing with a bride 2 days before the wedding. I felt horrible, but at the same time I'm running a business. No where in my information does it say that I provide babysitting services or that I will run your personal errands. I didn't have a very happy bride and it was definitely handed to me the day of the wedding. But I walked out of that experience laughing for the most part. And saddened by how unhappy this person must be in life in order to treat me the way I was treated that day....all out of sheer madness for not taking her list to Wal-Mart and not watching her nieces and nephews during the dance. For as long as I've been doing this....I still will never understand an angry bride on her wedding day!

While disappointment has it's time and place, it certainly has no place in my business world. Live it, love it, laugh at it....that should be my business mantra.