What happens after you get ready

I know how Life works.
I do.

I’m crystal clear about the Purpose of my Life… and why I’m here.
And I’m pretty sure I know where I fit in, within the grand order of things in the Universe.

So, I’ll share that knowledge with you today.

In my darling wife’s eyes…
In Life’s priorities…
I stand 3 steps behind Donny Osmond.

Wendy has been in love with him since she was 14 years old.
She has followed the talented 1970’s megastars, The Osmond Brothers, since time began.

Before our wedding day, I was left under no illusion about the pecking order.

So, you can imagine the Nirvana she reached when Donny –  still enjoying a level of fame – invited her to his dressing room for a chat and photo-shoot.
Nothing I will do can ever live up to that, can it?

In fact, this Osmond family has had an influence on my life for quite some time now.

I remember a dark, dismal day when my financial services career was still struggling to get off the ground.
Whatever I called myself, I was little more than a Life Assurance Salesman.

And I found that a miserable existence.

I was in South Kensington, and I wandering along the spacious, grand avenue that is Exhibition Road.
I entered the beautiful white ‘Hyde Park’ building of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons).

As I entered the foyer, I bumped into a couple whose photos appeared regularly in Wendy’s Donny Osmond collection.
It was Mama (George) and Papa (Olive) Osmond.
And they were here in the UK, serving a two year assignment.

“Hello son,” rumbled Papa Osmond. (I hate being called “son”!)
“You look pretty grim today. What’s up?”

So, I explained my singular lack of success in this new job of mine.
And the new responsibility in my life: the birth of our first daughter.

I expected tender, uplifting counsel from this wise, talented father of 9 children.

I didn’t get it!
What I did get was a sound verbal slap, and an exhortation that still rings in my ears today.

“Well, son. Now let’s see.” He stared at me with steely eyes.
“I’ve had some experience of selling. So I know the pressure you’re under.
But the fact is – with 11 mouths to feed – I admit that I’ve never had the luxury of feeling sorry for myself!
My objective was to make a sale a day!

My recommendation is that you get out there and you finish this thing.
It’s what I call “You Hoe To The End of The Row”.
You get your appointments, and you provide people with that insurance that they need.

Or you get out of this job fast, and find something that you enjoy.

You feed your family. But overall… you stop feeling so darned sorry for yourself!”

And I did.
And – in the days when we actually believed that you measured success in that way – I put in place one policy every day.

Sometimes we need to stop the busy activity that doesn’t engage with what matters.
Sometimes we need to stop ‘Getting Ready to Get Ready’.
Doing a host of things – especially all that online Marketing-Schmarketing –  that stops us picking up the phone… and talking to another human being.

For example, I well remember one of our daughters getting to know someone who was lauded on the internet, given that he had rapidly garnered 500,000 ‘Followers’.
Five Hundred Thousand!
Except that it soon became clear that he couldn’t afford to buy the groceries for himself and his son!

It’s easy to get caught up with all the noise, the fakery, the selfie activity of tempting technology.
And so take our attention away from what really matters in the progress of our business.

Sometimes, we just need to stop using emails and texts and blogs as an excuse to hide from developing deep relationships.
As Papa Osmond would say: “We just need to get out there, and stop seeking a million possible reasons not to do what needs to be done.”

We just need to pick up that phone, or have that conversation, and ask it, say it, do it.