Would you drive through a tornado for a referral partner meeting?
What if you had worked on that meeting for months?
Would the risk be worth the reward? For me, it was.
It was 3 pm on a Thursday back at the beginning of February when those crazy storms came through pretty much the entire east side of the country. There were mass flooding and tornadoes all over the place. One ripped through parts of Charlotte even, and let me tell you that does not happen often. I had to be in Knoxville early Friday morning for a meeting I had worked to get for several months, and I was not going to miss it. Luckily I pretty much drive a tank, so I felt safe to an extent but looked at the radar and felt I was safe enough to drive.
I underestimated what the storm had caused between Charlotte and Tennessee. So much rain came down waterfalls were coming off the mountain and landing on Highway 40. There were trees down all over, and debris all over the roads as I got closer to Knoxville.Nothing too serious till I got into town, and there was a significant road closure due to a river that ran over. Deepwater was covering the main road to get to my hotel. Fortunately, I found a route around it that got me to the hotel, but ill tell you it was a pretty nerve-racking drive.
I thought I was in the clear the next morning and took off for the meeting and ran into another roadblock where a tree fell across a two-lane road on a mountain. Zero way around it other than to find another route. Luckily, I made it to the meeting, and it went great. It is a relationship that will pay off BIG in the months and years to come that would not have happened if I would have stopped or turned back at the first obstacle.
I would have looked stupid, parking my car in the middle of the road and said: “I’ll just wait here till the water subsides.” or “I’ll wait here on this mountain and be late to that meeting till someone gets this tree out of the way. I am sure they will understand!” It’s not my style to sit back and wait for others to take action for me. Using technology and navigation helped, but we all have access to technology to help us solve our problems. Some are just better at seeing that than others.
A lot of people use the need to detour as our reason to stop or give up. Or worse, turn back and blame ourselves for the roadblock. “Maybe if I were stronger or better looking, God would not have punished me with the floods of 2020….” It sounds just as dumb as I lost my business because “I don’t use the internet,” or “I don’t like social media.”
We all need to take detours in stride. They are unavoidable. If we waited until everything was perfect and every contingency entirely figured out, we would never start anything. You gain confidence and faith in yourself by weathering the detours not by sitting back and hoping they never happen….
What is the most significant detour you have overcome so far?
