It's not easy being me

I spoke too soon. That is, when I wrote about it being a breeze to pack for the upcoming kayaking trip through the Virgin Islands. With the short pack list and temps not varying much away from 80 day or night, it’s simple. If you’re not me. I am me. So, it’s not enough to cull out the few required items. They have to be the ones just perfect for the trek. Let’s begin with the prosaic two bathing suits. You take two and alternate from day to day. What’s the problem? The problem is, I think. I think that the leg length should be long enough to protect my lily white thighs from tropical rays, but not so long I can’t hike them up to answer nature’s call. I think that there will be ample shelling opportunities and I need voluminous pockets to squirrel away the treasures. I think that the mesh liner shouldn’t be too coarse because I’ll be sitting on it for long hours. I think I think too much. From years of power sailing, power boating, paddling and even swimming, I own quite an array of the product. The angst is in selecting a couple pair that will suffice as opposed to scouring the web for the perfect match to specifications. So, let’s think about the two synthetic long sleeve t-shirts. I have no shortage of these, except I equate long sleeves with chilly weather. So, mine tend to be dark of color and heavy of weight. I can see why I’d want to at least start with longs sleeves. But, am I paying all that airfare to come back with no tan? You can only push sleeves up so far. And, what about this configuration? A button shirt would provide more opportunity to adjust ventilation and has a collar to turn up should the neck begin to broil. The buttons might be uncomfortable under a lifejacket. There is some leeway here because something “to wear around camp” is also on the list. So, I could slot the button shirt there and use it as needed. Of course, if I wear it to paddle, it probably won’t be in good shape for camp or hiking into the small towns (bars) that exist on a few of the remote islands. A hat. What could be simpler? A baseball cap is about as prosaic as you can get and it packs easily. But, should I take one that wicks away sweat or that provides protection from rain? Or, bump it up to a full brim for protection of the ears and neck? I can envision days of high winds, so I’ll need a means to secure whichever mode I go with. The sandals actually provide an oasis of serenity in all this. The pair I use for paddling are also good for hiking around. I spent several days digging deep into closets and drawers to amass piles of candidates, sorted by category. Then commenced the arduous task of elimination. It starts easy but gets extremely difficult to make those final cuts. Days later, that’s completed and I’m looking at a few small piles on the sofa. I try to slam the brakes on my brain, but it’s thinking again, generating all kinds of scenarios where a piece of gear will be rendered useless. What if I drop food on the front of my shirt? If? Look who we’re talking about here. By the end of the first day, you’ll be able to look at me and reel off the complete menu. The temp will be in the eighties. I’m not going to want short sleeves at some point? Items in the reject piles begin to crawl up onto the sofa. I email the guide and ask what size dry bag we’ll be provided with. He responds and I do a test pack. I’m okay. Maybe I should just take my own dry bag to be sure. I’m too much about being sure. This trait creeps over into other prep. I’ll be landing on an island and taking a ferry to a smaller one. There, I will stay the night at an inn before walking to the guide’s office in the morning. I search the web for maps and plot my path from the ferry to the inn and then to the office. It’s only a matter of blocks on each leg and you may even be able to see all the destinations standing in one place, but I map the route. So, we’re good. Are you kidding? I switch over to map sites that also have satellite views, zooming down to street level. I want to be able to recognize landmarks at the turns on my route, as well as the buildings that are my destinations. I now know the small town as well as I know my own neighborhood. That almost makes me feel prepared. In the guide’s response to my question about the dry bag, he added, “Please don’t fail to be at my place on time.” Not a problem. I’ll be sitting on his step before sunrise.

Wisdom

I gave a talk last week and told the audience at the start that I couldn’t even begin to cover all I knew about the subject in an hour. However, I would provide something even better; wisdom. To me, wisdom isn’t knowing the answers. It’s knowing what questions to ask. I tried to illustrate that point but I’m never sure how much registers. As example, some time back I took over a company that refurbished ATMs and sold them to credit unions and small banks. This was a market avoided by the big companies because they’d buy one or two units and it’s difficult to make money at that volume. Shortly after I assumed control, an employee brought me a brochure for a credit union trade show. We barely made money exhibiting at it but it was one of the best marketing efforts we’d had. So, the answer sought was if we would go to it this year or not. The answer was almost irrelevant since the outcome wouldn’t affect our outcomes significantly one way or the other. Instead, I asked the question, how can we reach this market at little or no cost? I won’t bore you with the creative problem solving process. What I arrived at was printing a pamphlet on how small financial institutions could increase their profitability through an ATM program. I told all the state credit union associations that I would make it available as a free public service. All that had to do was let me know how many they wanted for their members. The response was overwhelming. I shipped them in bulk to the associations, who inserted them in their newsletters and other mailers they sent out to their members, which made them look good. It spared me list rental, postage and lettershop expense and, as a big plus, carried the implied endorsement of the associations that mailed them out. Of course, the pamphlet had my company’s logo and contact information. It was a very profitable promotion and didn’t come from having the right answer to the trade show question. It resulted from asking the right question.