Photo from http://www.ethnologie.chaire.ulaval.ca/index.php?id=26&pratiqueid=31&no_cache=1

We all know that things don’t go as planned when renovating (especially if you are Penelope Trunk renovating a farm house in Wisconsin); I just learned that sometimes things don’t go according to plan when mating chickens; and often things don’t go according to your best laid business plans. 

Sometimes the work day doesn’t unfold as planned either. 

So far today, I have written 2 blog posts from Cafe Sportivo in the heart of Montreal’s Little Italy.  The owner (I think she’s actually the owner’s daughter) is a spirited woman with a great sense of humour.  I enjoyed an excellent expresso and biscotti for $3.  When I said “It’s only $3?”, she said, “What, you wanna pay more???”.  I have also kept my eye on World Cup action (Uraquay is up one vs. Mexico). 

I did not intend to spend my time this way today.

Au contraire. Today I intended to meet 2 prospective clients and also a business owner to discuss how our businesses are complimentary.  It was to be a productive day in the city, a stark contrast to my new country setting.

My first meeting was booked for 8:00 a.m. To make it on time, I came into the city yesterday, slept at a friend’s house, got up at 6:30 and drove 30 min in traffic to get from NDG to Little Italy on time.  Before, I continue, I want to make it clear that I do not feel sorry for myself. I am simply detailing what it took to make it to the meeting.  8:05 came and went, then 8:10, and 8:20 with no sign of the duo I was to meet. It’s 11:00 a.m. and I haven’t heard from them.  Meeting #1 remains a mystery(12:30 p.m. – Mystery solved…the person simply put it in the calendar for tomorrow rather than today. We will rebook. No hard feelings).

On to meeting #2.  I was to meet a prospective client at 11 in another part of town.  He had a family urgency come up so we are rebooking for later this week or early next.  It happens.

Meeting #3. It is scheduled for 2 p.m. with another prospective client.  As of now, the meeting is on. And with any luck, at the end of today, I will be saying 1 out of 3 ain’t bad.  I would be lying if I said that I won’t be dissappointed if none of my scheduled meetings come off.

But for today, I am listening to Roger Ward Babson who said,

If things go wrong, don’t go with them.

What about you?  How do you react when things don’t go according to plan?

My excitement about writing blog posts from my dock using the Rogers rocket stick was a bit premature.  The brutal reality, which isn’t really brutal, is that the stick doesn’t work at the cottage. Not on the deck, not on the second floor, not on the dock and not on the huge rock outside (that happens to look like a beached whale).  Nope. It doesn’t work.  

It does work at the end of the road and up the hill if I want to work in my car 3 km from the cottage.  And it works in the tiny town that is 5 minutes away, which happens to have a tiny and welcoming internet cafe anyway. 

I have to admit, I like the challenge this poses. It means it is not business as usual.  I have found that in life, when things get too routine, I change them on purpose.  So the idea of subletting my city place and living and working in a cottage full time for 3 months this summer was partially born from my need to change things up. 

Changing things up comes with its challenges.  It’s like a minature hero’s journey. Emails slip in willy nilly on my Blackberry with no rhyme or reason and I cannot email out; I have no voice mail (yet) on the country phone line; and I need to come to the city for meetings at least once a week to keep building momentum in my business. 

I say bring it on.  I am betting that the type of clients I most want to attract to my business–high aspiration entrepreneurs and professionals– will overlook the technical glitches in favour of focusing on the fact that, like them, I too love variety and challenge.  When I am sitting at some picnic table writing blog posts in the rain, I might change my tune. For now, I remain delighted.

I will be packing:

• A Rogers rocket stick for internet;
• My laptop and printer;
• A decent long distance plan for telephone coaching;
• My hard files and office supplies

I am happily giving up:

• My current routine;
• Access to the Metro 5 min away (I will drive to the city weekly to see propects and clients…it is only an hour’s drive)
• Full time city living, for now;

Because I am gaining:

• A lake to swim and a dock to write from each morning;
• Tall trees, flowers and country air;
• A fun place to host friends for long weekends and colleagues for some collaborations;
• Space to do things differently for 3 months in search of business creativity and innovation.

As Seth says,

When you need to have a meeting, have a meeting. When you need to collaborate, collaborate. The rest of the time, do the work, wherever you like.

My “wherever I like” is an office on a dock.   It’s my place to do things differently for 3 months…to expand my village.  If you want to reach me there, email me for details.  I’ve packed my rocket stick.

Me coaching Marie-Claude Pelletier, President, Les Effrontés; photo by Phil Carpenter, The Gazette June 6, 2010

Hey, look who is featured today! What a pleasure to wake up and read the great coverage on business coaching (and my coaching!) as today’s feature on the front page of the business section of The Gazette: When to call the coach. Thank you Alison MacGregor for writing a balanced and comprehensive feature on business coaching. 

Thank you, Marie-Claude Pelletier, my client and President of Les Effrontés for your openness to being interviewed for the article. Les Effrontés offers an amazing styling/ shopping service for busy business owners and professionals. Yes, I am biased AND I recommend them without hesitation.

Nice also to share the pages or the article with a couple of my coach colleagues Peter Vogopoulos and Alain Theriault.

Jim Stockdale as posted on www.achievement.org

Admiral Jim Stockdale was a prisoner of war (POW) in Vietnam. Jim Collins writes about him in Good to Great. Stockdale was imprisoned for 8 years from 1965 to 1973 and tortured over 20 times. As a prisoner he did everything in his power to create conditions that would increase the likelihood that he and his fellow prisoners would survive unbroken (i.e. he created rules to help people survive torture sessions, an elaborate internal communications system etc.). He was much loved by his fellow prisoners and went on to win the Congressional Medal of Honour in the US.  When Collins interviewed Stockdale, he asked him “Who didn’t make it out?”

“That’s easy”, said Stockdale, “The optimists….they were the ones who said, and ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas’. And Christmas would come. And Christmas would go. Then they would say ‘We’re going to be out by Easter’. And Easter would come. And Easter would go….they died of a broken heart.

Stockdale’s message:
You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they may be.

Where in your life/ business do you believe you will prevail in the end?  For me, I know I can build a successful and enduring coaching company. It is happening right now. Every day I see evidence of it. And the brutal reality is:

• It takes effort every day to develop business and coaching is hard to explain and sell to those who haven’t tried it;
• Professionals and business owners take a long time to make a decision that they need a coach and many might never make the investment;
• Being an entrepreneur is lonely at times;
• It takes a significant investment of time and money to train as a coach and build a business from zero; leaving a lucrative sales management job impacted my revenues;
• A lot of coaches give up before they “make it” or make up the difference by training and consulting.

Today a business owner client of mine cried during our session and told me how thankful she was that I made the decision to train as a coach. She said that if I hadn’t become a coach and been connected to her, she wouldn’t be where she is today, living her life in such a profoundly different way.

I don’t hear affirmations like this every day but it sure helps me keep the faith that I will prevail, regardless of the difficulties. And I am willing to confront the brutal facts of my current reality. 

Collins says that if you are able to operate from both sides of the paradox, never letting one overshadow the other,

You will dramatically increase the odds of making a series of good decisions and ultimately discovering a simple, yet deeply insightful concept for making the really big choices.  And once you have that simple, unifying concept, you will be very close to making a sustained transition to breakthrough results.

So where will you prevail? What are the brutal facts you need to face? How will you live in the duality of the paradox?