Last week, I got a call from someone who is both a competitor and a friend. We sell to the same customer, and he told me that the customer was asking for significant concessions.
I haven’t received that call myself yet, but hearing about his experience made me wonder whether I would.
That possibility affected my whole week. I started imagining what they might ask for, how I would respond, and what each outcome could mean for my business. Before anything had actually happened to me, I was already living through all the possibilities.
And I got stuck.
I was working, but I wasn’t giving my work my full attention. Part of my mind kept returning to a conversation I hadn’t even had.
Looking back, I realized how much energy I had spent worrying without getting anywhere. There were things I could prepare for, but I couldn’t know exactly what they would ask—or whether they would call at all.
That’s something I’m trying to learn in business: how to give a problem the attention it needs without letting it take over everything else.
Whether you own a business or work for someone, things will happen that upset you. I don’t think we need to pretend we’re unaffected. We need time to feel it, think about it, and decide what we can do. Then we need to move forward, even if the problem isn’t fully resolved.
For me, that means separating what I know from what I’m imagining. Preparing my options, then returning to the work that still needs me today.
I may receive that call, or I may not. I don’t know yet. But I don’t want to lose another week worrying about a conversation that might never happen.