Give Thanks For Learning Experiences
By Drue Lawlor, FASID
Director of Coaching at Gail Doby Coaching & Consulting
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
~Winston Churchill
As we approach Thanksgiving, it’s a wonderful time to reflect on what you are most thankful for, both in your business and your personal life. Try to not just recognize the positives in your life – be grateful for them. And as you reflect on those things for which you are grateful, you may be surprised to realize that at least some of them did not start out as positive experiences. Sometimes those experiences that start off as challenging or difficult give us the highest gain or achievement.
For example, you may have had what seemed like a dream job and the client did not select your firm. Rejection is often hard to take, even as we tell ourselves that we can’t expect to have a 100% conversion of prospect to client. Yet you may hear later that the job you lost turned into a nightmare for whoever they hired. Or that rejection may have led to your being available to take on a truly ideal client who wanted to hire you and start immediately. Or sometimes those rejections may send you down a different path. Maybe you started out in local residential design, and after several prospective clients went with another firm, you suddenly were presented with the opportunity to work with a client on the extensive remodel of their second home in another part of the country – or the world! Then that job led to a developing a specialty/expertise in designing or redesigning second homes. If you had been hired by that original client, you may not have had the time to take on the client whose work led you in a different direction.
As a business owner, you are the primary decision maker. The success of your firm depends on those decisions – what is the emphasis of your firm, who to hire, what hours to work, how to become more financially successful and more. This may seem like a great deal of pressure but it also offers you the ability to grow – not just professionally, but also personally. If you take advantage of the opportunities to expand your business knowledge and horizons by connecting with communities such as Gail Doby Coaching and Consulting, you will be able to gain valuable information on growing the success of your business. Beyond that you will also have the ability to take advantage of personal coaching to help keep you accountable, and also to connect with others in your field to develop a close knit community. So many of this “Gail Doby community” develop a strong bond – brainstorming, sharing business highlights and challenges, and getting together at design markets and events.
It’s easy to be thankful for the positives, but being thankful for the opportunities created by the challenges along the way can be even more powerful. What learning experiences cause you to be grateful because they have led to the growing success of your business?
