Saturday, October 14, 2006

Leaving on a Jet...Well, a Plane, anyway...

I left Columbus yesterday. After two of the worst, most nightmarish days of my life, I left Columbus to come to Italy.

It's not that everything is resolved or that I even deserve a trip right now. Quite the opposite- I should probably stay in the states and fix everything. I should organize my business and oversee the process.

But what that would look like is most likely very similar to what I was doing over the past few days, crying cursing the heavens, hyperventilating, having anxiety attacks in Target, and more crying. Not to mention terrorizing every Microcenter, Radio Shack, and Mac Store employee in the Tri-State area. It was not pretty. It would be an understatement to say that Nick has been my guiding light and rock over the past few days.

Besides the fact that I get to spend 10 days in Italy with my best friend and sister, Kate, it is best that I leave the country, I'm thinking.

At the Columbus airport, as I was waiting in line to get a very unhealthy drink in a certain not-to-be-named coffee establishment, the woman in front of me was finishing her order, and there were clearly problems behind the counter. So she calmly started managing the situation, with grace, patience and humor. This drink is his, it goes here, the total is this much, give her this change. It was cool.

So as we were waiting for our drinks, and joking a bit, I said "You MUST run your own business." and she laughed and said "Is it that obvious? Well, it's hard to let go sometimes."

And HOW! But managers NEED to let go! The question is, how can a personality like the one it takes to run a business LET GO long enough for the experts to fix it? AND during a crisis?

Well, God orchestrates the motherboard on the store PC to self-destruct 48 hours before the manager's planned trip to go to Italy, thus clearing the way for her dear husband and brilliant friends to step in and help.

That's how.

No comments: