A Letter from Chris Suarez
NO FALSE EMERGENCIES
This week I found myself unexpectedly on the way to the Emergency Room in the middle of the night. I assure you that the only way you’d find me there at any time of day is for something fairly serious and dangerous. I have enjoyed staying as far away from a hospital as possible over the past four decades. The reasons or events that led up to that are irrelevant for the moment, because the lessons learned through that experience far outweigh the details of the event. Perhaps equally interesting that evening was the "people watching" that ensued in the lobby of the Emergency Room around midnight (perhaps the topic of a future letter).
In the thirty minute drive from my home to the destination of the evening I couldn’t help but think “Now this is an emergency!” And yet numerous times a month I will receive a text, an email, or a voicemail requesting my help to deal with an “emergency". Of course, that emergency will take “just a few minutes” or a “quick call back”.
What do we allow to be emergencies in our life? Perhaps more important, what do we individually define as an emergency?
The true definition of the word emergency is a “serious, unexpected, and dangerous situation requiring immediate action”.
Serious. Unexpected. Dangerous.
Here is what caught my attention about that definition. It isn’t just one of those three. It isn’t two out of three. It is all three. And because of those three, immediate action is required - not suggested. As I thought about my midnight trip this week, it was unexpected, it was serious, it was dangerous, and the doctor made it clear it was required. Yes, that is a true emergency.
But what do we come across in our daily activity, in the course of a normal or even abnormal business day, that consists of all three of these? Well in most cases, nothing. Sure, we have problems to solve. But solving problems is a skill. Turning problems into emergencies is a flaw.
And herein lies some peace of mind for 99% of us, 99% of the time. Because nothing we do in our day to day jobs, our businesses, or perhaps our entire career will ever be serious, unexpected, and dangerous all at the same time. Nothing in business is life or death. Life itself is life or death.
We need not treat business that way or allow our emotions to respond to it that way. I assure you, if you allow your emotions to peak, your heartbeat to race, your face to flush, and your temperature to increase during a business “emergency”, you will be ill-prepared to handle a real one. Over the past couple of decades working with people, launching businesses, leading organizations, and negotiating literally thousands of times, calm always wins. And by win, it doesn’t immediately imply there is a loser on the other end of that negotiation or situation. But calm always wins.
The only way to lose in business is when you lose your calm. We get overly excited. We allow emotions to take over. We say things we wish we hadn’t. We act in ways incongruent with who we are or who we wish to be. We begin to do the wrong things at the wrong time.
A mentor of mine, Brendon Burchard, warns us in his NY Times best-selling book, High Performance Habits, “Don't allow someone else's false emergency to become your priority”. Whether that someone be a client, a customer, a partner, or even a friend, remember it’s a false emergency.
Just a final note. It was humbling to be around that 1% of people that do deal with emergencies every day in their jobs and work and businesses. They truly do handle serious, unexpected, and dangerous situations every day that require immediate action. They wake up every morning and every night ready to deal with real life and death emergencies. For that, they are heroes. And of note, even when called on to be heroes, they remain calm.
I am content handing them the hero card.
I am content calmly solving problems.
Remember: No false emergencies.
Chris
