Last week, I was scheduled to present to a group of business owners in Omaha, Nebraska. I got on the plane on Tuesday on time, and we took off. On the 1 hour flight to Omaha, we got ½ way there and turned around, because a woman on the plane had a medical emergency. We landed at DIA, Denver Fire/EMT’s pulled her off on a stretcher (she is doing fine now) we re-fueled and headed back out. We landed 3 hours after our original landing time.
I retrieved my rental car and drove to the hotel. It was 62 degrees with bluebird skies. So beautiful! I arrived at the hotel, got organized and went to bed. At 1:47 am, I woke up panicked, because I thought someone was pounding on my door. It was the sleet banging against the window. The snow was blowing sideways. I finally dragged myself out of bed at 6 am when I got a text message cancelling my flight that night at 5:30 pm. I called my client, and he said “Don’t worry! I have an F-150! I’ll pick you up!”
My presentation went really well, though I spoke to 4 people in person. (There were a few more on zoom.) We had a ball. It was casual, looser than normal, and we laughed a lot. Plus, they had a floor-to-ceiling white board! BLISS! (See photo!) My client, Greg and I, found a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant, (The only thing open for MILES) and I got enough food to cover my dinner that night. It was fabulous.
The next day, my re-scheduled flight was at 5:30 pm. I had nothing to do, so I went to the airport early. I struck up a conversation with a guy behind me in line, and turns out, he is a COO who turns companies around and sells them. He lives in Erie, Colorado, 20 minutes from me. He was VERY interested in my work, and we have scheduled a meeting for next week. He told me that “God wanted us to meet.” I was able to fly stand-by on an earlier flight and pulled into my driveway at 4 pm instead of 9. I nearly cried with relief at being home.
This is PRECISELY what your hiring process will look like, if you do it right. You want it to be straightforward and short. It never is. You want the right person to walk through the door minute one. Doesn’t happen. Sometimes you have to fly to Omaha, get picked up in an F-150, eat Chinese food twice in one day, all to bump into a potential client/employee/friend/connection in the TSA line, while complaining about taking off your shoes.
I will never forget this trip, and I would do it all over again to experience the things/people/food that I did. I experienced delays, wrong turns, disappointment, and waylaid plans. Did it turn out how I expected? No. Would I change a thing? Also no.
POWER THOUGHT: Quit micro-managing your hiring process. Open the door, and let the life-changing people/experiences/detours/ come in when they are ready.