What’s the Worst That Could Happen?

It was 2014, and I sat in my car nervous and scared, fretting, picturing every conceivable outcome. Would it be a success? A failure?

I called my friend Sam and asked for his reassurance.

“Brother, I’m about to pull the trigger on opening this after school program. Today is the day. I have a lease ready to sign, and I’m sitting here in the parking lot of this dealership, about to cut a big check to buy 3 vans simultaneously. I’m scared. Am I making the right decision?”

He asked me a handful of questions. I had the right answers. I knew my game plan, and I felt prepared.

But I still had to drop the cash investment, and I was shaking.

Then he gave me some of the best perspectives I could have asked for:

“Don, what’s the worst thing that could happen? Totally worst case— you go belly up, the whole thing collapses, it pulls everything apart, and you lose all your money and reputation. You smell bad because you can’t shower, and have nothing left… except for three awesomely wrapped vans! You sell one for cash, you live in the other, and we take the most epic road trip across the country in the third.”

He paused briefly as we sat in silence. “Honestly, I’m kinda hoping for this worse case for you now.”

There was no possible chance of all that happening. And even if it did, the story to tell would be worth the whole experience. That’s all I needed.

That day, I bought 3 vans, signed a lease, and we have been hustling to do a great job for our after school community ever since. Now, five years later, I’ve lost count of how many vans we have across all the schools.

To achieve our goals and take action, sometimes it helps to just ask the right questions, and have someone reminding you that “everything is going to be okay.”

 And sometimes we need to create the mindset that the worst possible outcome—will still be awesome ❤️