Yesterday: Meetings, Lessons and Coaching sessions.

People are hurting. Real, 'prim and proper', everything-looks-great kinda people are hurting deeply! And when you're hurting, everything is affected -your productivity and ultimately your prosperity.

How do I know? Of course I have always known that faces don't make men.

Anyway, I had the privilege again yesterday to serve in one of my highest callings -coaching.

Let me digress a bit and talk about my 'lesson in waiting'.

I was to have a short meeting in the morning at Sheraton but the man didn't show up or so I thought. He was there, I just couldn't recognize him! Of course, he wasn't a ghost.

Like you, I dislike 'waiting', not that I lack the virtue of patience but I just think that once I and someone agrees on a time and venue, agreement is agreement. At least if you can't make it on time or if you wouldn't make it at all, do your best to get a message across to the other party, apologizing for standing them up even if you can't fully explain what came up.

I was supposed to meet with a white man, hmmmnn, a Turkish guy...let's call him Hussein...but white folks keep to time, so what went wrong?

My associate that set up the meeting, a black man, was the one who messed it up!

Apparently, it was about a major deal and this associate didn't want to share contacts before the meeting and just told me to meet up with Hussein by noon at Sheraton.

I arrived by 11:38am and found a good spot at the bar. Talking about 'waiting' and patience as a virtue -there was this guy that was behind me at check-in where you have those metal detectors and he almost ran me over because he was in a hurry to nowhere. You probably also know those kind of people who can't wait their turn! We meet them at the ATM, at the airport -anywhere there's a queue! Some people can't just wait a second!

I am not like that. I believe that patience is a virtue and I understand that even when it comes to achieving our dreams, aspirations and goals, time is an essential part of the process.

Even the scriptures says: "seedtime and harvest". It can also be read as 'seed, time and harvest'.

So, waiting is not bad in itself. However, when you are waiting for an appointment and the other party has not shown up at the appointed time and have also not reached out to you somehow, you start to get irritated, especially when you're waiting in a hotel where the service officers wouldn't stop coming to ask 'what would you like to have sir?', 'tea or coffee?', 'are you waiting for an in-house guest?'...almost every four minutes!

It wasn't my first time of waiting for someone for an appointment and of course it wasn't my first time at Sheraton. I know the place well.

My wife and I hanging out at Sheraton some months back.

So, I left the bar, strolled around a bit and all this while, I kept calling my associate who wouldn't pick!

Always pick up your phone! Or at least, the important ones or you can respond with an SMS so the other party can rest assured you've seen the call and you will return the call at a later time. This guy wasn't picking my call...

There were almost two dozens of white men and women at the Sheraton lobby. How do I know which one is Hussein?!

After waiting for an hour plus ten minutes, my associate called...which by the way, looked like I have been waiting for eternity! And to think I kept calling my associate every 10 minutes. I must have left about 10 missed calls and 5 messages

I was already pissed and guess what, this guy didn't apologize!!!

Not good.

What?!!! I was outraged, well, more like 'in-raged' because I was boiling inside and wished I could burst but then, I had to restrain myself and tried to listen to his explanation.

I knew my patience was being tested but somehow I passed that test.

He later apologized on another call and we had to reschedule the meeting for Kebbi Hotel in the evening. This time, I insisted on having Hussein's contact.

We had the meeting later in the day and it went well.

Here are some lessons I learnt from that experience:

1. Ensure you have the direct contact of anyone you're meeting with. Very important. (This is even more important if you're going into a new city or a place you're not familiar with)

2. Have patience, you can't tell when it will be required. Lack of patience can ruin business relationships or any relationship for that matter.

I'm sure there are other lessons. What do you think, Braveheart?

Well, I digressed. I wanted to tell you about real people that are hurting. Let me put it in another way, everyone has challenges -even those folks that always appear as if they just came out of a magazine! Lol

Yesterday, I had two different coaching sessions, one with a top executive in Maitama (after my waiting at Sheraton) and the other with an ambassador (before my meeting with Hussein later in the evening).

As a professional coach, I am restricted from sharing details of my coaching sessions because of the confidential nature of the profession.

However, I just want y'all to know that if you think your challenges are overwhelming, you only need to hear another's story to know that yours is a molehill compared to someone's mountain.

So, in spite of your challenges, be grateful.

And if you feel you (or someone you know) need a professional, objective and insightful sounding board who can help you gain clarity, recapture your positive energy, overcome your challenges and achieve your goals in record time, sign up for my private coaching program:

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Just call Sam on 070 664 334 77 and get a 25% Easter Discount.

Hurry.

I love you forever and I believe in you.

Brave Regards,

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