“I bet this wasn’t your plan for this afternoon”, said Suzeta to a feral cat as she expertly caught hold of her neck and placed her in
wire cage. Suzeta is an expert cat catcher. She spends her working life catching feral cats in order that they can be spayed or neutered and live a more tranquil peaceful life in sun. In other words she is a mistress of surprise, constantly working off another plan.Watching her at work we were forced to think about number of times we had a plan for day and some other force came into our lives and gave us different choices. We were reflecting how many times an opportunity had arisen only to be rejected in favour of status quo. How many times we had been so focussed on our predetermined plan that we missed or nearly missed a great opportunity.
In 1990’s we had our own training business and saw an advertisement by a major British Company for trainers to be part of a team responsible for training staff for oncoming technology. They wanted experienced trainers to work with sales team to get them to a place where they could accept change and even envelop it. But there was two things wrong. One, fees offered were not what I thought I was worth and secondly, it was working with other freelance trainers I didn’t know. However, after great persuasion and pressure from Julie; I sent my CV (resume). A few days later, I received an invitation to meet co-ordinator of project. But, it was 300 miles away so I put it in too difficult basket on my desk and hoped it would go away.
A few weeks passed and co-ordinator rang to ask whether I received his letter and to confirm my attendance . I said “No, I was not coming”, about three times during conversation. But to my amazement on following Monday morning I found myself on early morning train going to meet him.
We met, enjoyed each others company and had a great deal in common, both in our expertise and way in which we thought such a project should progress. But, I decided I didn’t want it, using insufficient fees as excuse. However, about two weeks later he ‘phoned to say that he had put my case before Managing Director and he had agreed to increase fee to what, I had to accept, was a very generous offer. I couldn’t refuse.
To cut a long story short. I worked with co-ordinator for 3 years on this project, had a great time, met some marvellous people and learned a great deal.
But all could have been lost because I was unwilling to change my plan. I had a plan of type of work I did and who I did it with and how I got it. But fortunately in this case it was as though it didn’t matter how much I said “No” destiny was determined I was going to work with them and if I didn’t listen first time then it would keep pushing.
