This week was a big week in many ways.
First of all I started out the week with a little bit of a contentious meeting internally.
Progressive, but contentious.
Mistakes and excuses have been made over the past 12 months, inhibiting my ability to get clear data about our sales operation. This comes back to me and my execution.
I had plenty of acceptable excuses that were there for the taking, and boy, did I take advantage of a few of them. I’m not casting a shadow on the things I/we did right, but I do have to admit I could have been a bigger (and faster) part of the solution.
Wednesday had a follow up meeting, which was orchestrated by one of our great minds, Angie. She broke down the aforementioned data as simply as possible and cast the vision of what things should look like in the future.
She (and the rest of the team) did a great job qualifying about what was most important to myself and the sales team to make sure we got it right.
What she did well was focusing on the basics. That’s why I wanted to write this down.
It is, in fact, all about the fundamentals.
As that was happening, we had our very slow month of sales quickly pick up as Brian (Sales Director) doubled his sales for the month in a couple of days.
Big stuff from a guy with his back to the wall to at least some degree.
Now, onto a set of thoughts that have been going through my head, and how a TV show episode made me feel some type of way.
I was watching some Landman on my flight back from Milwaukee when I saw the young man struck oil in every well he drilled.
“That doesn’t happen”, he said. (It is extremely rare)
His girlfriend then saw him crying… She asked why he was crying, and he said, “I’m scared.”
This was in reference to the fact that he went from having literally nothing to possibly having 10’s or 100’s of millions of dollars.
He now had something to lose. A lot to lose.
This has been something I’ve worked on mentally for a long time. I’ve done my best to surrender to what the universe has in store for me, but there are days where I feel I don’t deserve what has come my way and that it will be taken from me quickly.
It’s a good reminder to look back over “The Surrender Experiment” this evening.
As I started writing about the Landman episode, I noticed I was being incredibly judgmental to myself. I mean, really fucking negative. This went on for quite a while.
They varied in subjects, but most of them had to do with greed. I hate that fucking word.
That’s another subject for another day. Right now, I’m just gonna work on surrendering.
Last but not least was a weekend with Elizabeth in Green Bay, attending the wedding of Phil and Jess Trzebiatowski held at legendary Lambeau Field. This one came with a ton of mixed emotions, which have weighed on me for months.
The ceremony and the couple were beautiful. Bright shiny smiles all around.
The wedding and after party were pretty fricken cool going from a botanical garden right into Lambeau Field. Drinks were flowing, and there were tons of people I hadn’t seen in quite a while. I really enjoyed catching up with them.
I was fortunate enough to spend a good chunk of time with my long time best friend Matt, which I fucking loved. Lots of golf and banter on the schedule for this summer.
What I will remember most about the wedding had to do with a man that I’ve never met but definitely admire after his speech.
The father of the bride.
He had a speech that came straight from the heart with no notes or looking at his phone (from what I saw). He just delivered a heartfelt message to his daughter and now son-in-law.
It was beautiful, it really was. I could feel the pure love take over the room.
I can feel it as I’m typing this.
That’s where I finish this Monday morning. A heart full of love that’s very heavy at the same time.
Gonna work hard this week and also enjoy myself with some golf.
Looking forward to my business partner, Emiliano, arriving this weekend for two weeks.
Chin up, shoulders back.
– SJ