Sunday Morning Reflections: Those Bumps in the Road Help You Grow

© kentoh

It's a typical Sunday morning and I'm up early. Molly the Wonder Dog is curled up on the floor next to me and Sheila's still asleep. The silence in the house is amazing. I love Sunday mornings because I allow my mind to wander. In trying to think of what to write about for Sunday Morning Reflections, I was looking through one of my favorite books, "It Always seems impossible until it's done."

I ran across the quote below from Walt Disney and it got me thinking about some of my own kicks in the teeth over the years. I know, especially for those of you who are younger, this will seem hard to believe, but everything really does always work out for the better. The unexpected changes in our journey in life aren't always easier, but over and over again I've seen them become better. You have to trust your dreams, be patient and listen to your heart.

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You may not realize it when it happens, 
but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.
Walt Disney

 Reading the quote above got me thinking about so many of my "bumps in the road" during my career. We've all experienced setbacks and mine are hardly unique,  Here are three examples:

• I got caught in two layoffs at Polaroid. Both times I thought my career dreams were shattered. However, had I not been laid off I never would have wound up in Customer Service. This new assignment eventually led to being Photo Specialty Dealer Manager for all the camera stores that sold Polaroid products, which took me to the job as President of Hasselblad.

• While at Hasselblad we launched Hasselblad University with the original two programs, one in the east at RIT and one in the west at Brooks Institute. However, the number of people registering was so low; we had to cancel both events. I was crushed and embarrassed because it was my idea. However, the logo design won an award, and Hasselblad University became the educational arm for the company, worldwide. Plus, the idea of establishing such a strong educational direction for Hasselblad, brought Tony Corbell to the company as our first Dean of HU and launched an amazing friendship.

• PhotoAlley.com was going to be my shortcut to owning an island in the Caribbean, and I left Hasselblad for fame and fortune. After two and a half years, we were over thirty million in sales, but the owners couldn't get us profitable. PhotoAlley went out of business in 2001, and I found myself standing in the unemployment line. I was crushed, but losing PhotoAlley opened the door for my future with Rangefinder Publishing and WPPI.
  

Many of you are relatively new to not only the profession, but being a business owner. So often you're ready to give up, believing that whatever didn't work out as planned is the end of your business. Walt Disney said it best in the opening quote. A kick in the teeth isn't easy to handle, but you simply can't give up on your dreams. 

Wishing everybody a terrific Sunday and a day filled with the same wonderful peace I'm feeling right now. Enjoy the day, hug somebody you love and always make the hug at least eleven seconds. Just trust me - the eleven-second hug idea came out of a magazine article Sheila read a short time back and it's great advice! Eleven seconds is just enough time to give a great hug some therapeutic value! 

...and thanks for reading, following and supporting me along with some pretty amazing partners and faculty at SCU. I sure do appreciate your support.