What “Is Is”…What “Ain’t Ain’t”…

Water is wet and rocks are hard. Just to show you how brilliant I am, 50 years ago I invested (spent) $450 (on my credit card, money I didn’t have) for a double long weekend seminar called “EST”. Which stood for Erhart Seminar Training. You can Wikipedia this for a full definition. Now $450 isn’t chump change today, so think back 50 years ago. This was a huge investment. At the time it was the “rage”, kind of like “living in Boulder”. Hey, have you done EST? Oh, okay, like we’ve been given some kind of insight into life, which is exactly what happened. So after seeing the double full page ad “EST is Coming to Denver”, my then current affair (hostage), said “we should do this”.

Turn in your Watch

Which today would be…turn in your phone. Part of the attendance agreement is turning in your watch before entering the room, not talking unless called upon, only using the restroom at designated breaks, making agreements to show up on time, only speaking when the microphone is brought to you, and agreeing to attend the entire two weekend 10+ hour day sessions in its entirety. So upon registering (paying) for the seminar in person, I was asked, “why do you want to attend this training”? Bloody good question cause I ain’t got $450, and knew my hostage relationship was in trouble, so I asked, “if I pay you $450 will this help my relationship”? Their response embedded in brain to this day was “it either will, or it won’t”. Perfect, giving up time and money I didn’t have for a “maybe”. What kind of guarantee is that? Okay, I’m in. The lengths we’re willing to go for Hostage Negotiations.

Confrontation

So right off the bat I show up late for the first seminar. The doors are closed and there are “volunteer hosts” at the entrance. I am promptly taken aside, confirmed I am an attendee, turned in my watch, confronted with acknowledging I had made an agreement to “be on time”, and that I had “broken my agreement”. They suggested I take a look at “my inability to keep my agreement to arrive on time”. Okay, whatever, I’m the guy paying for this, let me in. The very next day the same thing happened, and the next. I was getting good at being confronted at the door.

Making and Keeping Agreements

After this grueling weekend I walked away thinking, I just paid all that money and time, the stress of driving to the other side of town, after working all week, spending my hard earned weekends in a seminar, and in the end was gifted this….”Water is Wet, Rocks are Hard, What Is Is, and What Ain’t Ain’t”. In today’s world the saying of “It is what it is”, most closely mirrors my takeaway. So after scratching and shaking my head for a week or two, another EST seminar opportunity presented itself, this one about making and keeping agreements. Okay I guess I haven’t paid or had enough, I’m going back for more. And did. And what I walked away with this time, was

1. Most people make agreements without ever having any intention of keeping them.
2. If you’re not going to keep your agreements, don’t make them in the first place.

Hey, I’ll call you later. Hey, we’ll do lunch. Hey, we ought to get together sometime. Hey, lets do (_____) sometime. Hey, I’ll return that book. Hey, I’ll pay you back. Hey, you can trust me. Hey, it’s all BS.

And from that moment forward, I became much more mindful about whether or not I could keep or make an agreement before committing to one. Which also entails appearing on whatever agreed date or time, or having the integrity to cancel or reschedule in advance. There you have it, todays thought to ponder. No charge today. Moving on.

I love it when a plan comes together, and I love seeing young people reach out and make something happen. This Coffee and Crepe/Waffle business, with a mere 3 newish smelling wood tables on a dusty potholed dirt street, offering fresh made fruit crepes/waffles and a great Americano coffee from a honest to goodness Espresso machine. Beat that. All in including tip, $5. And then there is Eddie.

Who’s Eddie

Eddie is the Sugar man, the Candy man, complete with bags and scale, the Candy Man Can. A young entrepreneur. I’d like to see more young folks take the initiative to be productive.

Which leads me to asking each of you to share this blog with your families and friends. Once my audience has grown from 15 to 1,500,000 I’ll have paying sponsors so I can buy fishing boats, create an empire, be listed on the stock exchange, and then retire to Mexico under a Palm tree. Humph. Till next Sunday, keep your chin up. Now go forth and sin no more.