The Choice is the Ticket

Many people believe that they are stuck in a particular situation. They can't seem to find a way out. The reality is that there is always a way out, if only you are willing to accept the consequences.

This past weekend I went to Florida to see my fiance, MAK. Long distance engagements are torture even with email, chat, phone, and skype. I had bought my tickets a few weeks in advance on the cheapest airline taking the skies, Spirit Air. Everything was set to bring a smile to my face and remove the gloom that had been clouding my existence ever since she left to go back home after the vort.

I get to the gate, after having an easy time going through security, only to find that the flight which was supposed to leave at 1:30 was now delayed till 4:30. It was then 12:00 and I was looking at a few hour delay sitting in the airport.

Deciding to do something about it, I go out of the terminal and look at the departing flights on the board. It seems that there was another flight leaving for Florida at 1:30, Jet Blue and on-time.

I went to the ticket window, and after a little back and forth in my head, I spent the extra $340 dollars to get to Florida exactly when I was expected.

MAK was very happy to see me. We had a great weekend. And it all started with a choice, the choice not to let circumstances get in the way of a perfect vision.

Doubting my Self Interest in a Sales Career

After working for a political campaign for a couple of months, and getting frustrated by not being able to solve anyone's problems, I decided to leave politics and go into insurance. In insurance sales at least, I'd be able to give someone something they need and solve some potential problems. The problem is that all the work I do is commission based. The only way I get paid is if I sell someone a financial product. Now the certainty of not helping anyone at all by being part of a campaign is replaced with doubt. Am I really trying to help someone, or am I just trying to make the sale?

The company I work for says that everyone needs the products that they offer. Who doesn't need insurance? If something should God-forbid happen to them what will they do if they are uninsured for that event? They give specific formulas necessary for calculating how much insurance a person will need in the event something should happen, all based on how much the person earns. Like a religion they tell me what I should be doing in certain situations for different individuals. I don't buy it. There is nothing that everyone needs, there is no formula to determine how much insurance a person should have. The only way to determine what a person should buy is by letting that person make the decision on what he wants to buy. The only thing I can do is educate the person and make some educated suggestions. The problem for me is that every time I meet with someone I am torn; who am I making the suggestions for? I know that at the end of the day; the bigger the sale, the bigger the commission.

What ends up happening is that in order to balance out what I see as my own self interest I end up going into Professor mode. I educate the person with so much information that they end up not wanting to make a decision. I end up just confusing people. I end up not closing the sale that the person would have potentially made to help out their own situation.

Political campaigning helps no one; politicians never follow through. Sales has the potential to make someone better off by giving them what they want.The big question I ask myself, is the doubt fueled by an internal sense of honesty, or is it cowardice? How do I get past the feeling of doubt?

Check out the new header, or I'm still blogging

It has been a while since I have done any serious blogging. Some might even say that I have given up the hobby altogether. Not to fear, this is not the case. I have not given up blogging. I have just been searching for a good follow up post to the “I am engaged to be married to the 1:100000000000000000 girl in the world” post. It is hard to go from the “I'm engaged” high back to the mundane posts on silly nonsense.

Instead of going back to writing about whatever it is that I was writing about before, I am now going to write about whatever it is that I am going to write about now. I have no idea what it is I was writing before, now though I have some idea of what I am going to be writing about.

I'm going to write a love story. I'm going to write my own love story.

Since a picture is worth 1000 words, just take a look at the header. I had it made with MAK in mind.