A Letter from Chris Suarez
“ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET? ARE WE THERE YET?”
Last week I took my kids on a drive. I didn’t tell them where we were headed - just that we were going to be spending some time together. I didn’t tell them where we were going or how long it would take to get there. I just told them to be patient. That may have been my first of many mistakes.
It wasn’t more than 10 minutes into the journey before the “are we there yet’s?” started rolling in. Then the “how much longer’s?”. Followed by the “how about now’s?”
When you aren’t completely sure of the destination it’s easy to get bored and tired. Heading anywhere without a clear map and without a clear expectation of how long it might take to get there will always bring with it a level of impatience and an unnecessarily high level of uncertainty. The back seat was definitely willing to give up pretty early in the trip. After all, they hadn’t even been involved in the decision making process to start the journey.
I couldn’t help but think I was actually in the middle of a rather clinical experiment and later study of human behaviour. I lost count of how many times I was asked where we were going, why it was taking so long, would it be worth it, and could we just turn around.
I began to wonder how many times in the past two decades of building a business I may have sounded like one of my kids in the back seat. Building any business is a long journey. It is a long journey oftentimes with unexpected detours, unplanned routes, and unknown obstacles. Even every year can feel like forever. We are bound to begin questioning if it’s worth it, to begin questioning if we are almost there, to begin questioning whether or not we are even headed in the right direction. In fact, building anything worth anything is such a long term game that without a clear map and clear picture of our current positioning and how it relates to the final destination, we are bound to give up - to turn around and go back home.
Well we finally arrived. As an aside, I was taking them to the special Disney exhibit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. (For those of you who know how much I love Disney -insert eye roll - I’m hoping I scored at least a few points towards my bid for Dad of The Year for that one!).
They had an incredible time touring the exhibit, meeting up with some of their friends from NY, and even I was able to sneak in a bit of time visiting a few of my favourite rooms in the museum. They definitely agreed that the drive was worth it. The destination was worth the journey.
But here is where the real lesson showed up. On the way home, they didn’t ask once how long it would take. They didn’t ask once if we were there yet. They didn’t once say that they were bored. Because they knew that they were headed home. They knew what to expect. They remembered how long it took. They saw familiar landmarks along the way to confirm where they were. They knew the end game was heading back to our condo.
Ever wonder why the ride home from a road trip always feels so much faster than on the way there? It’s not about anticipation or excitement. It’s based on the fact that we’ve been there, and we know exactly how to get home and how long it’s going to take. It brings a little assurance to the uncertainty of any journey.
When we aren’t exactly sure where we are going, or even exactly how we plan to get there, turning around and going back home seems like a great idea. Being willing to continue the journey starts with having a clearly defined and stated goal. It continues with setting some landmarks or priorities along the route to look for. It requires having a strategic path or plan that points us in the direction of the destination. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be traffic. Don’t be alarmed if your GPS recalibrates in order to help you arrive on time. That doesn’t mean that a bridge won’t be closed or a detour wont present itself. It doesn’t mean that you won’t encounter an accident along the way. But you’ll know where you are headed, know how to get there, and be convinced that it’s a destination that you chose to get to.
Too often in business we want to tap out. We find ourselves asking “why we aren’t there yet” - why we haven’t been able to reach our goal or why it feels like it’s taking way longer than we expected to get there. We may begin to wonder how much longer we are willing to be on the journey.
In those moments, what we are really searching for is direction. We need that map. We need a recalibration of expectation. We may need that partner to come alongside us and show us where we are, show us where the destination is that we chose, show us the map and best route to get there, and maybe even sit in the passenger seat and play the role of co-captain.
The ride home with the girls was so much more pleasant. Not necessarily because they were too tired to ask questions or because we had such an awesome day together. But just because they knew where we were headed, they knew how long it would take, and they knew what to expect when they got there.
Chris