I was recently sitting in a parking lot waiting to meet a prospective buyer for a car I’m selling on craiglslist.com. Somehow he got lost on the one (and only) turn of the trip, extending his 1 hour trip to 2 1/2 hours. After calling multiple times saying he was passing “a city with a lot of stores” and wanted to know where to go from there, he finally arrived. The minivan came to a halt and I was surprised to see not one, but six adults and two kids get out and start inspecting my car! The driver came over to me and without a “hello” or introduction said, “you gave me the wrong directions…give me the key so I can drive it.” 
After completing their autopsy on the vehicle, I received an offer that was less than half of my asking price. I scrounged up every kind nerve I could find in me to say “thanks, have a good day,” got in the car and left.
On the way back home, I couldn’t help but bust up laughing at the whole situation. I mean, sometimes it honestly seems like certain people put extra time and effort into poor planning that makes life difficult for others! Though this event seemed highly unprofitable at the time, I’m taking three things away from it that apply to most pursuits.
- Lost? Stop and ask. Don’t know what to do? Ask questions! Chances are really good that someone around you knows the answer or can at least point you in the right direction. In the same way, there’s nothing worse than spending hours of time working on a project and then realizing you did it the wrong way, or worse yet, that you could have completed the whole process with two clicks.
- Expect the unexpected. Go ahead and plan on things not going exactly as you planned. If your computer is going to crash, plan on it happening right before you click save on that 95 page business report.
- Establish your destination before you start. Where are you headed? What’s your main goal? Taking a moment to determine where you want to end up can save you a lot of time, money, and frustration, that could otherwise be spent on unplanned “sightseeing adventures.”
Sometimes surprises actually turn out for the good, so don’t spaz out when things aren’t going exactly as you had planned. However, if you’ve taken the right steps and are still surprised, just remember “these are the experiences that make us better,” somehow.
