Good and productive day today–I went in to John L. Scott for the Tuesday sales meeting, which was fascinating; and we went on tour after that–looking at some new listings–and I met with the Boss Man after that, going over some of the homework he’d given me. I had a few questions, but mostly it was pretty clear. He gave me more homework: to write up a faux offer, using the proper forms. That should be fun.
And after I left, despite all that encouragement and interesting stuff, I found myself feeling all anxious and icky…I ignored it for a while and went about my business, but the feeling didn’t go away. Finally, in the swimming pool (face down in the water, the rest of the world blocked away, nothing but my own thoughts to distract me), I asked myself, Self, what is this anxious ickiness?
And I realized (duh) that I’m nervous about this–the whole endeavor. I’m 45 years old, starting an entirely new career, in something I’m interested in–fascinated by, even–but have no experience in. I’ve never sold anything before. I *think* this will be a good fit for me; there are lots of indications that I will enjoy this and be good at it; but, it’s huge, it’s risky, and I really just don’t know. How can I? It’s new: that’s kind of the point.
So I found myself telling myself the words that I’ve been saying to everyone else, as I’ve gotten into this: I’ll never know unless I try–really try. I’d been thinking about doing this for years, tempted, interested; but I hadn’t done anything about it; and that’s the road to certain failure. It’s like writing: you send stories or queries out there, and you get lots of rejections–but if you never submit, you are CERTAIN not to sell. And sometimes, you get acceptances. I’ve gotten nearly two dozen acceptances…from hundreds of submissions.
Yes, this is scary. It’s risky. It’s unfamiliar. It might even not work. But if I had only dreamed about it, and never tried? I would surely regret that, far more than if I give it a full and enthusiastic and genuine try.
Then I felt much better. This is going to be awesome. Why NOT?
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Mark sent the story back, much improved. As predicted, though, I see some fine-tuning I can apply to it. And, amusingly, after telling me he could trim it down, he took it up to just under 6K. They were good additions, though, and 6K is the actual upper limit, so that’s just fine.
(I knew he needed room to work…) 🙂
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And the latest news from the Department of Parental Doings: there has been rather an infestation of these creatures at the home of Dad and Stepmom:
The devils come in the cat door, despite the fact that the cat door is one of those fancy ones that is only supposed to open when signaled from the cat’s collar. In the photo you see monster #9, having been humanely trapped for release far, far away. Monsters #10 and #11 have already been sighted, and will hopefully be trapped tonight. This has been going on for weeks now. When will it end? When, oh when?