As cliché as it sounds, I’ve learned first hand that you should always expect to have
unexpected surprises in life. Case in point: Late one night recently, I was leaving my office, which you may recall opens up to my garden. As I stepped outside, in the pitch black, I thought I noticed a fox nearby, and stopped in my tracks. Then, slowly, with a briefcase in one hand and a mobile in the other, I moved to chase the fox away.
Unfortunately, I forgot where I was in the garden and fell face first into the pond. I was lucky that the pond really only went up to my thighs. My mobile and briefcase were unharmed, but I had big bruises down one side of my body … and a bruised ego to boot! When I told my wife what had happened, she fell
about laughing. My daughter at university also thought it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard. To top it all off, the “fox” I saw was really just a cat.
It’s in my nature — in business and personally — not to dwell on the negative. I can have a laugh about the pond incident now, but it wasn’t so funny at the time.
That was the first unexpected surprise I endured recently. On a more positive note, I went to see my beloved Spurs play Chelsea recently in the Capital One Cup Final. Now, I have a friend who lives 200 miles away and is a big Chelsea fan (I know … I like him in spite of his taste in football teams). As we were approaching the stadium, I felt my mobile phone start ringing, and it was this friend calling me, but he was literally standing just across from me at the stadium without realising it. Neither of us expected to see the other one there, and here we happened to stumble across each other amongst 90,000 screaming fans! It was a wonderful coincidence. Not so great that we lost, however.
Here’s a third unexpected surprise that wasn’t so great. A few weeks ago I took my Dad and a friend to watch Spurs play Swansea, at The Lane, (spot the common theme). We parked in a private car park where we have parked for years, and went to the game. We returned to find my car broken into. The rear windscreen was smashed in, and my friend’s bag had been stolen. All of her worldly possessions were in that bag: laptop, money, keys, passport, and other valuables.
Ironically, I was now in the psierraosition of offering my friend advice on filing an insurance claim, and having to do a claim of my own for the broken windscreen.It was a bit of a busman’s holiday, but the most important thing is that no one got hurt.
I’ll conclude with one more funny, little story related to a surprise mentioned earlier. I’ve just settled a claim for a client following a major fire at his flat and he sent me this testimonial:
“Thanks for the great work. At the end of the day I have a beautiful new flat, and the value is probably enhanced by having upstairs look so good … I think when all the invoices are settled we should have a ‘wee nip’ to ‘celebrate’. I understand that a bit of pond water can enhance the taste of the whisky!!”
You see I had told him about my pond faux pas, and the real irony is, he’s the one who installed that pond in my garden! I blame him of course.
Ultimately, in my business, you have to be able to make “a silk purse out of a sow’s ear,” as the saying goes. We’re here to make good out of bad when those unexpected surprises catch you off guard!
All the very best,
Steve Lazarus
