Another participant in my Enrollment & Accountability series, Ed Lewis, owner of MSE Plumbing, writes about enrolling his wife in the idea that things would work out after financial setbacks. This is a great illustration that we are enrolling people all the time. In this blog post, Ed describes a simple enrollment – one in mindset and moving forward in partnership. Think about where you do this. We do this with our spouses, and in our families every day. This truly illustrates the maxim – you are always either enrolling or being enrolled:
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Just today I was talking with my wife about our current financial situation. We have a very solid path that should produce the financial results we want in less than 45 days. I started with, “when was the last time that we were not in a financial bind?”
She said, “forever.” I agreed. When we first got married I worked for Safeway and she executive assistant for the CEO of a large corporation. We had no children and no major aspirations. We paid our bills on time and managed to save a little bit of money.
I hated Safeway and that’s when it all started. I got into sales and sucked. Eventually I got into plumbing and did well. Then things just kind of kept happening. We have lost everything more than once. The cause of great stress. However I always persevere.
And seem to do more and better. Now she no longer needs to work and deep down while scared, knows that one way or another I will make things happen; that is what I do. Make things happen. While I was doing a bit of personal back patting, there was the hidden agenda.
I was letting her know that in this manner, I can take care of her, as security is so very important for her. Me, throw me in the woods with a pocket knife, match and some rope, I’ll figure a way out. So I’m letting her know that we have 2 solid directions to go in, while most people are stuck with the one direction that they didn’t even choose in the in the first place.
In the end, I saw her change her way of looking at our situation to focusing on the positive and learning from the negative. She is realizing that a failure is just a learning experience if you let it. Three steps forward and two steps back still means you progressed by one step. Better then most.
