“UGH!!!! I burned the effin’ cookies!!!”
Not sure whether to laugh or hide, MyHoney rolled his eyes and tried to soothe my Inner Martha Stewart the best he could. While running around, opening the door to my apartment, turning on the fan over the oven and praying to God that my smoke alarms wouldn’t start blaring causing another impromptu fire drill for my landlords kids… I swore like a pirate, and beat frantically at the smoldering charcoal cookies with a dish rag.
“This is why I don’t bake! I totally suck at it!”
In a huff, I stormed off to sulk, and left MyHoney wondering what Hurricane Cilly would do next….
After checking my pride, and telling my ego to go take a long walk off a short pier, I composed myself enough to come back into the kitchen and apologize for my outburst, and pray that MyHoney wasn’t contemplating running off with a disgustingly overly-cheerful, peppy perfect cook like Rachel Ray. Instead of retreating however, MyHoney was happily munching on burnt cookies.
“You don’t have to eat those to make me feel better.”
“I’m not” he replied with a satisfied grin…. “These are the best burnt cookies I’ve ever had!”
“Yup, that’s me, I’m the best damn cookie burner this side of the Mississippi!!”… and he smiled and said “That you are!” and he reached for another cookie, and ate it with gusto and delight.
My ego had taken a hit – it seemed like all I had done lately is burn cookies. I got divorced, lost my dog, lost my job and my truck all in the course of one year. My life was starting to sound like a country song. Who is going to want to hire me to coach and consult them on business decisions when I can’t even get my shit together? MyHoney listened to me bellyache and woe-is-me for a few minutes, but in his silver-lining, optimistic and always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life wisdom said “But Hon, if you were to teach someone how to make cookies right now, you would be able to show them how to without burning them…. you would tell them to turn down the heat, and you who them how to set a timer – they would benefit from your mistakes.”
He’s right. In business and in life – you are going to burn a lot of cookies. Life gets messy… but you can’t close shop when the kitchen gets too hot – you need to learn how to continue to move forward, to be resilient. My clients aren’t going to have perfect lives either – and no burnt cookies should keep them from their dreams of being an entrepreneur, experiencing financial freedom, and going for their personal Everest! They need a guide to navigate the kitchen. If there is ever an expert on burnt cookies – that person is ME!
So Leaders – if you burn your cookies – be the best damn cookie burner you can be – and be a mentor for the future cookie burners of the world…. and wash it down with a big glass of milk.
This article is part of the #write31days challenge for October 2015. To catch up on the whole series – click HERE.
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