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Take a Chance – The Tree Fell Perfectly

Take a chance in business. Sometimes (many times) you have to do that to make progress.

In baseball, you can say that you miss all the pitches you do not swing at. In football, you miss every possible completion you do not throw. In basketball, you miss all the shots you do not take.

When it comes to business, you miss all the sales you do not ask for. You miss all the opportunities you do not attempt.

Thank you to Son-in-Law Brian Barker for cutting down a hickory tree in our back yard. We have wanted it down for quite a while. We either want to build an add-on dining room, or at least a deck. at some point.

Take a chance. My son-in-law did, and he got a tree to fall perfectly. Your business chances may turn out just as well.

He looked doubtful when he saw where it was located, just three lawn-mower widths away from our kitchen window.

We had noticed the leaves had spots on them, and we wondered if the tree were coming down with some kind of disease. He had asked about cutting down a tree in our woods for firewood. I don’t think he expected for us to suggest a tree in our yard.

He had to land the tree between our house and a pear tree, and it had to miss a pine tree at the edge of the yard.

Brian could have just not attempted to fall the tree. In fact, he suggested I talk to one of our mutual friends to see if he could suggest someone to do it for us. I think Brian was really worried about how we would feel if it went several feet farther south than where we were looking. If it did, it would hit the corner of our house and possibly tear off a gutter. I was able to persuade him that I really hoped he would try it, and we would not hold it against him if it did fall off course a little bit.

Brian said, “When you hear the saw start up, tell the girls (my wife, Rhonda, and his wife, Rachelle (our daughter)) to get out of the kitchen. … I’m serious.”

It fell perfectly!

Take a chance in your business efforts, just like Brian did with the tree. Sometimes, you will fail, but you will learn something. Sometimes, though, a surprising opportunity may come your way. You may be afraid to follow up on it. If you don’t, though, you will never know if it could have been good for you.

Maybe your skills are not good. They will never improve if you don’t try.

Be wise. Do your due diligence, but when the time seems mostly right, take a chance. The results may pleasantly surprise you. Maybe it will fall perfectly!

Would you like to write a book? Every book you do not attempt has no sales. It has no impact on anyone. Have you never done it before? Are you willing to take a chance? Would you like some help from some who have gone through the scary path before you? Would you like some time-management skills to help you in your writing?

You could check out some more writing tips here.

When have you taken a chance in business? How did it help you? Do you have a breakthrough moment, you would like to share with us?

We would love to hear from you in the comments section below.

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A Quiet Air of Respect

I attended the funeral of Tom Julian this afternoon. He was a man for whom I have a great deal of respect.

Tom and his wife, Wava, were good friends with my parents. They often visited and played games together.

Tom Julian – A Man of Integrity and Respect

That meant that their children and I were good friends too. We played together while our parents were playing games. I remember their oldest son, Danny, had all kinds of cool stuff. He had an erector set and a reel to reel tape recorder (It may not have exclusively been his, but I remember us playing with it.)

Danny and Patty and their younger sister, Kathy were closer in age to me. We remember going on camping trips with our parents. Brian and John came along later, so I did not know them as well.

Kathy remembers liking my comic book collection. She would borrow some and give them back the next time we visited. She especially liked the Archie comics.

I remember Tom being a man of integrity, a good carpenter and woodworker (although his occupation was coal miner). He even made their own pop-up camper. I also, however, remember him as a man who was faithful in church.

I told his older children, whom I knew well because they were closer to my age, “I don’t know if it was his Christianity showing through, or what, but I always thought of him as being a man that displayed a quiet air of respect.” They agreed.

How this relates to my business interests is that displaying respect always pays off. Also, in the series of books I am writing on marriage, I talk about the importance of respect. That will be highlighted in the next book in the series, book 3, which will emphasize the importance of valuing each other.

To see some more marriage resources, click here.

That is a great summary of Tom’s “Life in a Day!”