A few weeks ago, I was driving home with my daughter on the last leg of a week-long, cross-country trip that took us 3,004 miles from her doorstep in Steubenville, OH to our doorstep in Poulsbo, WA. She was coming back home after a 7-year “tour” that resulted in a Masters degree and a job back home. We had used her GPS throughout the trip to guide us to our next destination. I turned it on this last leg home, even though I knew the way because I always like to feel this is my final “destination.”
I was getting frustrated with the GPS as she kept telling me to take an alternate route home. I couldn’t understand it. After all, I knew where I was going. Heck, I’d driven this stretch of highway a gazillion times. Why would this electronic device try to take me off my own course? In jest, I kept telling her that I was simply going to ignore her and go my own way. She had the last laugh.
Turns out the GPS had a built-in sensor for traffic. She was trying to help me avoid a huge traffic jam being caused by the start of a 3-day Independence Day weekend on the Interstate. By the time I realized my mistake, it was too late and I was stuck.
How often does that happen to us?
We think our way is the right way because we’ve done it before; we can do it best by ourselves; we don’t need any help…we’re smart. Just like I laughed off the good advice from the GPS, we also often disregard opportunities to really rapidly advance our careers and improve our lives when we don’t seek help.
Do yourself a huge favor. Find some smart GPS to guide you “home.” Executive coaches and mentors often sense those “traffic jams” that lay in wait ahead of you and can divert you to roads that lead to faster and more effective destinations. You ignore them at your own peril. I wish I had been more humble with that GPS…I would have been home faster.
Are you humble and smart enough to take the right road for your success?
Dan Weedin
Dan Weedin helps turn his clients business risk into rewards. He is able to take the abstract concepts of risk and crisis management to help business owners prepare and respond more effectively and with less time and cost to crisis. Since he doesn’t work for an insurance company or agency, he is able to act as an unbiased advocate for his clients. You can lear ore about Dan and how he can help your business on his web site at www.DanWeedin.com.
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