Deliver the Unexpected by Richard Robbins

Author:Richard Robbins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2012-07-03T00:00:00+00:00

Back at the office, Josh sat at his desk and did something he hadn't done in a long time: He looked at his list of leads. Or, rather, he looked at the list without passing his eyes over it as if the names didn't exist.

Josh had built the list carefully—friends, family, contacts, referrals, and any other name that was a remote possibility for business. He knew that that list was critically important to his success, and he tried to read it with fresh eyes.

But still, he did nothing.

Maybe failure isn't the opposite of success, Josh thought angrily. But it sure as hell feels like it. Why can't I just do what I need to do?

Then Nathan's voice echoed in his ears. Don't try to do them successfully.

At first, it hadn't made any sense. It had seemed like nonsense to Josh. But then Nathan had explained that focusing on a successful outcome was what created his fear. “Until you get the experience to do it right,” the tall man had said, “you need to focus on just doing it. On achieving the failure, so you can get on with success.”

Achieving failure. It was a strange idea. But as Josh sat at his desk, understanding began to dawn on him. It's about learning, he realized. Not about right or wrong. If I just take action—make the attempt—I'll learn, and then I'll get better, whether I fail or succeed.

Josh returned to the top of the list. He was willing to start at the top and simply work his way down, but there was a part of his mind that was looking for an easy call, one that might have a little less potential for failure attached to it. He skimmed downward, his brain processing, but he could feel his energy waning. Josh sighed. He just wasn't good with failure. He knew there were people who seemed immune to rejection, but he just didn't feel like one of them.

He thought back to the early days of his relationship with Kiera. Even then, he'd been too afraid of rejection to even ask her out. He had been so desperate to be close to her that he'd panicked and asked her roommate out instead. He cringed as he recalled his blunder. The roommate, of course, was no dummy. She not only rejected Josh outright, but had sat him down on his sorry ass and called Kiera into the room.

Josh felt his cheeks flush as he recalled his embarrassment. She'd outed him right in front of Kiera, telling her that it was about time the two of them quit pretending and simply go on a date.

And they had, Josh thought. And here they were, married!

I guess some blunders are lucky ones, Josh thought with a smile.

Then he stopped. Cocked his head.

He scanned the list again, running his finger down the names. His finger stopped and his eyes narrowed. He looked at the name his finger was pointing to: Ben Halton, his neighbor and best friend, the one who'd chosen Amy over him.

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