This blog is dedicated to finding, sharing and discussing a variety of topics around the struggles our clients and audience go through. Each episode we discuss a key concept that many humans struggle with. To give you a variety of perspectives for you to see the concept through so you can find one that makes it feel easier to deal with.
And if you prefer to listen, this episode is available as a Podcast or a Video.
Let Me Tell You A Story…
Instead of my usual blog posts with lots of information for you to read and use in your life, today I want to tell you a story. And this story is also being written / read / told live every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:30pm GMT on (hopefully!) Facebook and LinkedIn between 12th November and 24th December. Click these links to subscribe and join us for the last instalment which is happening tonight!
Stories have been used for centuries to share wisdom and ideas within our species. And this idea for this particular story came to me a few months ago as a way of sharing some new ideas with people that can improve their life.
I find stories are the best way to get a message across. It is why we like to read books, watch TV series and films. Because stories are a great way to share a message by inviting the reader / watcher / listener to be a part of the story. To become the character in their imagination.
And that’s what this story will do. It will invite you to become the main character, Morgan, and become the hero / heroine of the story!
There will 13 chapters and this will constitute the first draft of this story before I send it to publishers and become a published author. Which has always been a dream of mine! So thankyou to you for joining me and holding me to account to get this planned, written, shared, edited and finally published! Without you, I would probably let myself off the hook (like I have effectively been doing all year since the idea came to me!) and this would never get done.
So I hope you enjoy these 13 blog posts, and if you want to send me any ideas or ask any questions to guide the story or to make it make more sense to you, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, but for now let us carry on…
Read Chapter One HERE.
Chapter Two is HERE.
See Chapter Three HERE.
Chapter Four is HERE.
Find Chapter Five HERE.
Chapter Six is HERE.
Check out Chapter Seven HERE.
Read Chapter Eight HERE.
Read Chapter Nine HERE.
Find Chapter Ten HERE.
Read Chapter Eleven HERE.
CHAPTER TWELVE – The Decision
Last night was simply amazing… Met so many amazing people, overheard some great business tips, and got lots of thanks for the work that I did. Not to mention the funding approval! I am on my way to my cleaning shift this Thursday morning, the sun is shining, the weather is warm, people are smiling and laughing.
Life is so good!
So why then am I considering NOT buying into the franchise?
I feel so torn.
This is exactly what I want.
A new apartment, new job, time to do what I choose to do. But equally, it is so much more responsibility and risk! What if t doesn’t work out? Where will I be then? My home and my job will be the same address so if anything happens to the shop… I’ll be jobless and homeless in one fail swoop.
Why am I thinking like this?
Humans seem to be programmed to think of all the problems, what could go wrong, instead of being able to see what could go right.
I know I am more than capable to do this, and it’s not like I will be on my own! The coffee shop owner isn’t going to let this fail as its their name and their brand. I also have made so many new connections recently that I have more than enough people to ask advice from, and also advertise to, and also help in return!
But when I get to the university something happens that I wasn’t expecting.
They offer me a fulltime position, better pay, more hours, and more seniority. Running the shifts rather than cleaning on them. My first instinct is to say no thank you, I was looking at reducing my hours soon. But instead I ask for some time to think about it. They say that interviews are next week so to let them know ASAP.
If I was torn before? Now I’m being ripped in half!
I was pushing forward towards the coffee shop and that apartment because there didn’t seem to be any other option. This new offer will earn enough to get a little studio apartment near the university and be stable.
But I thought my old job was stable… We know what happened there!
My mind is going in so many different directions as I clean along the university corridors. Not noticing any of the posters or anything outside my own head. Cleaning on autopilot because I have done this routine so many times now.
I take some deep breaths when I take my short break, quick check of my phone and there is an email from the person who approved my funding request. I guess that makes it official! My break isn’t long enough to digest the information, so I get back to work and read it in the park after my shift.
There is a contract that I will need to run through with the coffee shop owner to make sure it is all ok. Some praise again for my vision and conciseness. And also a deadline to let them know by Monday.
I need to make a decision, I know what I want to do, but it doesn’t feel realistic or achievable for someone like me. I know exactly what my friends will say. And also the coffee shop owner. They all have a lot more belief in me than I do. But this is my life. Not theirs. It is me who has to make it work. Not them.
But wouldn’t this be so awesome? My own business. The freedom to work when I want to. To help others. Be creative. Host events in my own space… To not know exactly how much money is coming in each month. To be responsible for a shop, its employees, its upkeep and maintenance…
Stop it.
I decide to head to the coffee shop. Via home quickly to get changed and print these documents off to read through properly and show the coffee shop owner. This is such a big decision. The ultimate T-junction in the road my life follows. And whether I choose left or right, my life will change. And it will be a change I can’t reverse!
Just breathe Morgan…
The coffee shop is very quiet today. Very few people in, even during the usual after school rush time, so I get some time to read through the paperwork I printed and wind myself up some more!
Should I or shouldn’t I…
The contract is fairly straight forward. Not many terms I have to meet. And some set monthly dates that they want to use the apartment on that are set in stone. They can move them, but only with notice, and only if the space is available on those days. It all seems very fair considering the amount of money they are willing to give me and not be paid back! I’m still not sure how I even managed to get their details to send my proposal across. I guess it must have just been my intuition. That I then almost blindly followed rather than dismissed!
I am grateful for that nudge. But I am still torn as to what to do.
“Woah, you OK Morgan?”
I look up. I didn’t even hear the door open. Or the coffee shop owner come in. I tilt my head slightly in confusion.
“You are oozing conflict! I’m guessing they said no to your proposal?”
“Oh no! They said yes! But that’s the issue. I also got offered a full-time cleaning shift manager role at the university today as well, and now I’m so confused.”
They smile a half smile and ask what I am drinking.
I take a deep breath, answer and then swap places with them as I was standing behind the counter. There are no customers in, and we chat about the shift today while they make us both a hot drink and then we go to sit in the window.
I slide over the contract for them to look at and sit quietly as they leaf through it. They agree it is very fair, and they are very impressed that it doesn’t need to be paid back. All very doable.
“So what’s the problem?” They say.
The question caught me completely off guard.
“Honestly? I don’t even know, or understand what is going on in my head.”
They motion for me to elaborate, and I just let it all spill out. Everything that’s been going round my head for the past few days. They sip their drink and just simply listen.
When I stop, they put their drink down, turn the contract over and pull a pen from their pocket. They draw a line down the middle, write Coffee Shop on one side, and Cleaning on the other, underlining both.
“Now, from what you’ve said I can see the following pros for each option.”
They write down under Coffee Shop:
- Own business
- Support from the brand
- Multiple income streams
- Hosting events
- Creative opportunities
- High income potential
- Included 2 bed residence
- Freedom of choice
- Varying work hours
- Time freedom
Under Cleaning they write:
- Fixed hours
- Known monthly income
- Potential overtime
- Job security (?)
- Studio flat
- Pension
- Benefits?
And then they drew a line under each column, leaving a little space, and said, “and now for the cons”.
Under Coffee Shop they wrote:
- Extra responsibility
- Unknown specific monthly income
- Lose home and income if fail
- Unknown hours
- Management of staff and rotas
And then under Cleaning, they write:
- No freedom
- Set routine
- Management of staff and rotas
- Set income
- Contract clauses
Once done they slide the paperwork over to me and say:
“That is a everything I picked out from what you were saying. By writing it down like this, it makes it more visual so should give you a better chance of making a decision based on what you want to do and what the risks are for either option. I know what I would choose, but it’s not me making the decision. What I will say is this though.
I faced this decision as you know, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Yes, it was scary at first and really hard to make the transition. Learning what I needed to do each day rather than having someone tell me what should be done. But once I learned and set my own routines and business started to pick up? Things became so easy! I am so much freer. Not needing to report to anyone and choosing my own path.”
I take their words on board, looking over the four lists they wrote down.
They really are a good listener. They got everything I have been thinking about and got it organised and onto the paper. This makes things so much simpler as it’s all there in front of me instead of running around in circles round my head.
I say thank you, I know what I need to do, I just need to get over myself and make the decision! They nod and agree as a group of customers walk in and we get back to work.
For the rest of the shift there is a steady flow of customers, so I distract myself with conversations, making drinks and getting food orders ready. Before I know it, I am turning the sign on the door to closed and starting the cleaning routines. The owner had to pop off before the end, so while the machines run their cycles, I pop upstairs to the apartment with my laptop.
I search for places to live near the university. A lot of student accommodation shows up first, naturally, so I adjust the search parameters and there are a few places that come up. Mostly in blocks of flats, mostly 1 beds and studio apartments. I look around the apartment I am sitting in and compare it to those on the search.
None can compare if I am honest!
The apartments online that would compare would need an income three times the amount that the university are offering. I scroll back to the ones within my price range. There is a nice little studio apartment with a fair-sized room and ensuite bathroom. I do some quick sums in my head to include the bills, food shopping and other things that need to be paid and quickly realise that I would only be left with a similar amount to what I had with my old job.
The amount that meant lots of clothing repairs. Leaking shoes. An un-waterproof coat that were all my norm. With no spare money to do anything I want to do. Why would I want to go back to that?
I look around the room again. Surely this is worth the risk? It’s not like I will be going it alone. There is a long track record and the owner is completely on my side and wants me to succeed.
So why am I still not making the decision?
I close the laptop down and head back downstairs to do the rest of the jobs before heading home.
It’s raining.
And the first thing I think is simply; “Well if you take the leap, you wouldn’t have to walk home in the rain, you’d be there already!” It makes me smile, and all the images of that life flood into my mind. Life will be so good if, no, when, all these images become reality!
Once home I go straight in the shower and then warm up the panini that would be no good for sale tomorrow. Once heated I sit at the table and pick up Think And Grow Rich, opening it at a random page. It is the decision chapter and the bit that draws my eyes says:
“We who wish to accumulate riches, should remember real leaders of the world always have been men who harnessed, and put into practical use, the intangible, unseen forces of unborn opportunity, and have converted those forces, (or impulses of thought), into skyscrapers, cities, factories, aeroplanes, automobiles, and every form of convenience that makes life more pleasant.
Tolerance, and an open mind are practical necessities of the dreamer today. Those who are afraid of new ideas are doomed before they start. Never has there been a time more favourable to pioneers than the present. True, there is no wild and woolly west to be conquered, as in the days of the covered wagon; but there is a vast business, financial, and industrial world to be remoulded and redirected along new and better lines.
In planning to acquire your share of the riches, let no one influence you to scorn the dreamer. To win the big stakes in this changed world, you must catch the spirit of the great pioneers of the past, whose dreams have given to civilisation all that it has a value, the spirit which serves as the lifeblood of our own country – your opportunity and mine, to develop and market our talents.
Let us not forget, Columbus dreamed of an Unknown world, staked his life on the existence of such a world, and discovered it!
Copernicus, the great astronomer, dreamed of a multiplicity of worlds, and revealed them! No one denounced him as ‘impractical’ after he had triumphed. Instead, the world worshipped at his shrine, thus proving once more that ‘success requires no apologies, failure permits no alibis’.
If the thing you wish to do is right, and you believe in it, go ahead and do it! Put your dream across, and never mind what ‘they’ say if you meet with temporary defeat, for ‘they’, perhaps, do not know that every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success.
Henry Ford, poor and uneducated, dreamed of a horseless carriage, went to work with what tools he possessed, without waiting for opportunity to favour him, and now evidence of his dream, belts the entire earth. He has put more wheels into operation than any man who ever lived, because he was not afraid to back his dreams.
Thomas Edison dreamed of a lamp that could be operated by electricity, began where he stood to put his dream into action, and despite more than 10,000 failures, he stood by that dream until he made it a physical reality. Practical dreamers do not quit!
Lincoln dreamed of freedom for the black slaves, put his dream into action, and barely missed living to see a united North and South translate his dream into reality.
The Wright brothers dreamed of a machine that would fly through the air. Now one may see evidence all over the world, that they dreamed soundly.
Marconi dreamed of a system for harnessing the intangible forces of the ether.
Evidence that he did not dream in vain, may be found in every wireless and radio in the world. Moreover, Marconi’s dream brought the humblest cabin, and the most stately manor house side by side. It made the people of every nation on earth back-door neighbours. It gave the President of the United States a medium by which he may talk to all the people of America at one time, and on short notice. It may interest you to know that Marconi’s ‘friends’ had him taken into custody, and examined in a psychopathic hospital, when he announced he had discovered a principle through which he could send messages through the air, without the aid of wires, or other direct physical means of communication. The dreamers of today fare better.
The world has become accustomed to new discoveries. Nay, it has shown a willingness to reward the dreamer who gives the world a new idea.
‘The greatest achievement was, at first and for a time, but a dream.’
‘The oak sleeps in the acorn. The bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul, a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of reality.’
Awake, arise, and assert yourself, you dreamers of the world. Your star is now in the ascendency. The world depression brought the opportunity you have been waiting for. It taught people humility, tolerance, and open-mindedness.
The world is filled with an abundance of opportunity which the dreamers of the past never knew.
A burning desire to be, and to do is the starting point from which the dreamer must take off. Dreams are not born of indifference, laziness, or lack of ambition.
Remember, too, that all who succeed in life get off to a bad start, and pass through many heartbreaking struggles before they ‘arrive’. The turning point in the lives of those who succeed, usually comes at the moment of some crisis, through which they are introduced to their ‘other selves’.”
I can certainly relate to that!
All of this came out of the crisis of losing my job, or the potential of. My partner leaving. Then the eviction notice… And everything else that has happened in, what? Two months?
Napoleon Hill’s book goes on to say;
“John Bunyan wrote the Pilgrim’s Progress, which is among the finest of all English literature, after he had been confined in prison and sorely punished, because of his views on the subject of religion.
O. Henry discovered the genius which slept within his brain, after he had met with great misfortune, and was confined in a prison cell, in Columbus, Ohio. Being forced through misfortune, to become acquainted with his ‘other self’, and to use his imagination, he discovered himself to be a great author instead of a miserable criminal and outcast. Strange and varied are the ways of life, and stranger still are the ways of Infinite Intelligence, through which men are sometimes forced to undergo all sorts of punishment before discovering their own brains, and their own capacity to create useful ideas through imagination.
Edison, the world’s greatest inventor and scientist, was ‘tramp’ telegraph operator, he failed innumerable times before he was driven, finally, to the discovery of the genius which slept within his brain…
…Helen Keller became deaf, dumb, and blind shortly after birth. Despite her greatest misfortune, she has written her name indelibly in the pages of the history of the great. Her entire life has served as evidence that no one ever is defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality…
…Beethoven was deaf, Milton was blind, but their names will last as long as time endures, because they dreamed and translated their dreams into organised thought.
Before passing to the next chapter,
kindle anew in your mind the fire of hope, faith, courage, and tolerance. If you have these states of mind, and a working knowledge of the principles described, all else that you need will come to you, when you are ready for it. Let Emerson state the thought in these words, ‘Every proverb, every book, every byword that belongs to thee for aid and comfort shall surely come home through open or winding passages. Every friend whom not they fantastic will, but the great and tender soul in thee craveth, shall lock thee in his embrace’.
There is a difference between wishing for a thing and being ready to receive it. No one is ready for a thing, until he believes he can acquire it. The state of mind must be belief, not mere hope or wish. Open-mindedness is essential for belief. Closed minds do not inspire faith, courage, and belief.
Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty. A great poet has correctly stated this universal truth through these lines:
‘I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.
For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.’”
That’s really hitting home.
All I have to do is turn a wish into a desire, by simply believing that I can. I know what I want to do, it is even what I have to do, unless I want to continue living this way. Which I don’t.
What I want right now is a new job and a new home. It is as simple as that.
The cleaning promotion would be considered a new job, but I would still need to find somewhere to live and that could take a while until I can prove my income.
The coffee shop franchise opportunity is also a new job. And includes a new home. Yes, I don’t know what the income will be yet, but it has the potential to be so much more than the university role, and is potentially uncapped when I add on my side hustle and other potential incomes I can build alongside it.
When I look at it this way… It is a no brainer. But it is so different and so much more responsibility than anything I’ve ever done before.
But so was leaving home for the first time. Getting my other jobs. Moving home. Getting new partners. Splitting up from my partners… All the decisions I have made to this point have got me to right here. This next decision will get me to where I want to go next.
So where do I want to go?
I get lots of kickback when I think about what I want, so maybe I should think about what I don’t?
I don’t want to be homeless.
Or to spend my life as a cleaner.
I don’t want to live in a studio apartment near the university.
Those responses all point to the franchise opportunity as well.
Seriously Morgan!! Get a grip and take the leap! You know what you don’t want, so take a chance on what you do want. You will be homeless by the end of next week regardless and you aren’t earning anywhere near enough to be able to enjoy your life. So just take the leap!
I get up from my chair and go to the window to look out. And can just see the top of the coffee shop building and notice a rooftop garden with some tall grasses and a welcoming seat. I wonder if I can access that from the apartment? That would be an added bonus!
All the added responsibility aside, the franchise opportunity ticks all the boxes. I have people willing to give me the money to buy into it at such a small cost to me. There is an amazing apartment, with a spare bedroom as well which I could sublet. Not to mention the opportunities to host speaking events, meetings, tasting sessions and so much more.
The images are building again in my mind.
My excitement is building with them. Yes, the nerves and fear are building with them as well. But then something pops into my mind…
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
I open my laptop, go to my emails, open the one from the funding opportunity and respond. Accepting their proposal and promising to get the paperwork back to them tomorrow afternoon.
I then go to the other two providers and accept the grants they offered me. Sharing the contract details from the other company to prove I have secured the other 70% they insisted on.
Finally, I send a message to the coffee shop owner saying that I have made my decision and would like to accept their proposal to buy the shop as a franchise.
I feel a bit sick as I do each of these. One at a time. But I ignore it and just keep sending the messages. Sending one last one to the group chat with my friend. It is quite late by this point, so I shut down the laptop, brush my teeth and climb into bed with a book to help myself to fall asleep ready to speak to the cleaning manager tomorrow.
What Do You Think?
So what do you think? Comment below with your feedback and where you would like to see Morgan’s story go or where you think it will go! I only have a rough outline plan so far so your input could guide it in another direction…
If this story resonates with you and you want to discuss this further, then get in touch today. Either here or through any of my social medias or schedule a call to discuss it with me directly.
I look forward to speaking with you soon.
To your success,
Jaiye
PS.
Don’t forget to come and join me live for the last chapter tonight! I will be streaming on Facebook and Linked In! Hopefully… Register now!
