A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure to be invited to talk to @NicoleBremner on her podcast. The purpose of this post is to talk about a lesson I took away from the day that was most unexpected, and one that I have put into play already in my life.
All in all the meet took about one and a half hours in the depths of Hackney. I arrived very early and took a walk around the immediate area. In truth I was a little nervous, a podcast, arggghhh I hope I don’t say anything shortsighted or ill-advised. So to clear my head and also to fill it with what I wanted to say I took a walk. Property development is always where my head is at and seeing the great visions of so many property professionals come together in an area is inspiring. Hackney continues to be one of those areas that to date I haven’t had the pleasure of getting to know. I have been involved in Shoreditch but that is definitely not Hackney and I’m sure I would upset anyone from either area if I said they were the same. I have to say the level of work is inspiring and I took some great snaps on my camera which I have been slowly dripping out on my instagram posts.
Now to my point. As we progressed through the chat we had great fun and we chatted off air about general life. We shared successes, what you have in common and any areas of your life that are causing concern. In each area of life we had many stories to share but what I really admired about Nicole was only that morning an incident had taken place that would have driven me bonkers and possibly taken my day into a spin. Add to that a few other matters and I would definitely been in a state of flux. Nicole was the interviewer and running the show, so had a job to do, and that is what she did. She had a smile on her face and the revelation I had (the following day) was that because she was so at ease so was I. If she had bowled into the studio all flustered, moaning about bad luck I would have reacted differently during the talk and I believe I would have been influenced by my surroundings. Ever the professional Nicole sailed me through the talk and had me buzzing for the rest of the day.
I put this lesson into play only last week. I had a site visit to complete some 3 hours away. As I was in touching distance of the destination a warning light came up on the dashboard of the car. As most sensible people do I ignored it and assumed it would go away when I hit a speed bump or at the next service when I get told off for leaving whatever the issue was for so long. I arrived at site and my business partner pointed out that I had a flat tyre, oh so that is what the warning light was telling me! Have I got a spare, of course not, cars these days don’t have a spare. I really didn’t want to deal with the issue there and then, did my tyres not know that I had work to do, how dare a screw jumps into my tyre and upsets the rhythm of the day. To help us get to the next site visit we all jump into another car and we drive to the next destination. I sat in the back seat trying to stay part of the conversations about our work whilst also trying to phone around local garage to organise a new tyre. I had phoned three garages, completed a form online and none of them had the tyre I needed, they all said I would have to wait until tomorrow. Who waits until tomorrow for anything in this world?
I had work to do, which involves listening, and it was at that moment that I had a flashback to our podcast day and thought do you know what there are worse places to be stranded for a night stop. Stop panicking and book a hotel room and be done with any worries. I can promise you this had I not had that flashback I would have continued calling around more garages, possibly telling some of them how ridiculous it is that they do not stock the tyre I want and being an unpleasant little grunt.
So thank you for the lesson in humility Nicole. Being thankful for all that we have going for us, and not sweating the small stuff, and indeed the large stuff, is what I took away from you and wanted to share. After all what is large stuff to us is superficial to what others are suffering with in this mad world of ours.
If you would like a listen to our chat Nicole hosts a wonderful podcast and you can hear our talk here: