Ode to Wise Decisions – Business Owners Trust Your Instincts

Three days ago when the local weather station predicted a Lake Storm Warning for yesterday, which was one of my event days in a city about an hour away where we were expecting 30 women in a city in direct line of Lake Ontario’s heavy storm totals, I deliberated all day trying to decide whether to reschedule the event. When I looked out my window trying to make the decision the sun was shining and no one was calling our office to ask if the event was going to be moved.

As an event planner the last 2 decades, I felt the warnings were giving me enough information to reschedule the event even though it meant contacting the speaker, venue, caterer, and sponsor to seek their opinions and then choose an alternative future date. I also had to call or email each attendee to communicate the news, give them the new date and expect to refund money. Rescheduling events is never my first choice of action. But in the back of my mind was the warning which suggested travel was going to be dangerous for every one that day.

I needed to make a decision so I quietly sat looking out my business window at the sunshine and heard a voice say “trust me.” I then started the process of moving the event forward. Yesterday morning, the day of the event, I awoke to no signs of snow in the region yet. Frustrated by the lack of white stuff out my window, I doubted my decision.

But two hours later emails started coming to my inbox saying, “Good Call,” “Thank God you moved the event,” and “It is really bad here – smart decision.” Only then could I relax knowing the “trust me” voice was my inner knowledge that knew the right answer after 20 years of event planning. When the snow made it unbearable for my son to get back from college 20 minutes away last night, I received confirmation again the decision to reschedule was correct.

Sometimes in business we feel the need to push on, follow-through, trust others opinions and not listen to our own instincts in order to complete something big or small. But when doubt is surfacing or indicators are giving you notice or you are literally getting warnings, you must trust that you know better than anyone else the right decision to proceed.