Welcome to Chez Cliff!

Many moons ago, I received a call from my mentor.  He was very interested in doing a real estate deal with me.  At the beginning, tremendous effort was made to get him and the Real Estate Agent in the same room.  Both are very successful at what they do.  What could be the problem?

Plenty.

Trying to align schedules proved to be more difficult than I could imagine.  And I only have myself to blame.  I had fallen under that trap of trying to make everyone happy, be flexible to everyone’s schedule.  This has never worked for me in the past.  I’m unsure why I thought it would work now.

It’s the same idea as trying to get eight people together to see a movie.  There will always be one person who can’t make it.  Their cat coughed up a hairball or something.  So what do you do?  Do you sacrifice seven people for the one?  I certainly don’t.  Someone has to step up to the plate and take charge or no one sees the movie.  Everyone waits for everyone else.

With these two, I was running into the same problem.  Only difference is the project can’t go forward without either.

In talking with my mentor this last weekend, I mentioned to him how difficult it was trying to get them together.  My mentor simply said "Make it happen."  I realized my approach to this had been all wrong.  I was leaving the question opened ended:  "Well what time works for you?"  This proved impossible to get these two to meet.  My question became "We’re meeting at 1 o’clock.  Can you make it?"

Make it happen.

I did.

We’re meeting.