Two years previously my business was making so much money I was having trouble spending it! Then, key workers left, others stole from the business, and the rest who were still employed simply stopped working. It was my secondary business so I could not spend a very long time there everyday. I decided to sell. The buyer and I agreed on the details, and we decided the business would merge with his very quickly. I then heard from a third party that the buyer changed his mind just 48 hours before the deal was due to be signed on Tuesday. I tried to call him early Sunday morning but he was on the golf course! I waited outside his house, in my car for six hours waiting for his return.

I was suicidal... I was going to go bankrupt, lose everything. As I was also in a profession where bankruptcy was not an option, it meant I would lose that source of income too. Those six hours brought me to these conclusions:

What is the worst that can happen?

Accept the worst.

Work on improving the worst.

Live day to day.

That was two years ago. I did those things as advised by Dale Carnegie and here I am now, finally sorting out the last bits of the chaos. Each day I worked on different parts of the financial mess and each day it got better. The business that failed was a 24 hour a day cab company that had the normal problems... with or without the money! I was a prisoner. Now life is good. I am involved in new activities and building new skills. I wanted to do these things before, but having two businesses to take care, time was just not there. I now have time for three visits a week to the gym, have lost 25 pounds and feel great.

If you had said to me that rainy Sunday two years ago, “ ‘Don’t worry, it’ll all sort itself out,’ I don’t think I would have been responsible for my response!!”

Don’t panic... ask:

What is the problem?

What is the cause of the problem?

What are the various solutions?

What is the best solution(s)?