I'm back!

 It's been a week since I have written to you. 
A very long week!
A lot has transpired since then. So much so that I am not sure where to begin.
The last time I wrote, I was heading off to breakfast on the morning of the opening day of the trade show I was attending. Our game plan this year was to handle the show floor with a much smaller staff than last year., reducing our man power from 9 people to 4.We were comfortable with our decision knowing that we were over staffed last year and we anticipated less traffic .
What we did not plan for was for 1/4 of our 4 man team, and the leader, the only person who knew the minor details of things like prices, to come down with the flu!
So here I was sitting at breakfast, taking a few minutes to enjoy what would probably be the only meal I would have for at least 12 or 13 hours, when I found out the news that we would be short handed. Not only short handed., we were flying blind! No knowledge of pricing. Very little knowledge of the new product line. We didn't have a catalog,price list or order form.
It was time to panic!
Not really.....
It was time for me to step up and do what I do.
After grabbing a cup of coffee and printing out 1 price list to get started with,our valiant band of 3 made our way to the convention center and set to work. 
The show opens at 9 a.m.So does the Kinkos across the street. 
Now we are down to 2 people as 1 of us had to go make copies of the price list.
With the one price list we had, I made my way through the booth, strategically marking prices on key items .
We were ready to take on all comers.
 And we did!
Without being overbearing and working together with the other 2 people in our little team we handled the entire show.
Every one did their part. Every one leaned on each other. Every one pitched in and made this show a success.
Weeks of bemoaning the idea that I would be working a trade show with out my normal support staff seemed to disappear.
I , along with the others in our little group, stepped up and did what needed to be done....and more. It was by all accounts one of the smoothest run shows we had ever experienced.
Upon returning home, it dawned on me that not having my troops with me was not just the end of an era. It was the beginning of a new one.
My perspective, if not my entire way of being, is changing. 
I had become fat and lazy. I was too comfortable. I had become so dependent on the abundant resources around me that I lost track of just how precious my own resources and skills are.
It is a new day in my world. There is a new way of doing things. My dependency on the team that I built over the last 2 decades is changing. 
It's back to basics for me,doing the little things that I once did for myself that I have passed on to others in the belief that I needed to do this to give myself the space to move forward.
I had become a gentleman farmer. It's time for me to get dirty and stick my hands in the soil once again.
I will continue to move forward. However, as my mentor Darren Hardy suggests in his message today, it is a time for a new beginning. 
It's a new beginning for me and for others around me.
I see it happening in many places around me. People are re evaluating how they do things, how they show up and how they can help themselves by learning to use their own skills and resources instead of sitting back and leaning on those around them, doing the same old same old and wondering why they are not moving forward.
It is pretty remarkable....and very contagious!
And in almost every case,one major building block, a common theme, is people having conversations with other people.
Reaching out. 
Tapping in. 
Being connected.
This is all good stuff!
It's time to roll up my sleeves and have at it once again!
Kind of exciting!
Shabbat Shalom!