THE FIVE-MINUTE CALL I AVOIDED FOR THREE YEARS
Ten years ago, I spent three years avoiding a five-minute phone call. I was not idle during those three years. I was busy. There was always something else that needed attention, always another task that felt more pressing, always a reason why today was not quite the right day to make the call. I was a master at staying in motion while standing completely still.
My business had hit a ceiling. I had taken it as far as I could on my own and I knew that outside influence was the only thing that was going to move it forward. My mentor, who arrived in my life in the most dramatic of circumstances involving red wine — a story I will save for another day — suggested I open concessions in Selfridges and House of Fraser. In my head, that was so far out of my league it was almost laughable. So I did what many of us do when something feels too big. I procrastinated instead. For three years.
The day I finally made the call was the day I had genuinely run out of things to do. There was nothing left to hide behind. I picked up the phone with absolutely no idea what I was going to say, and what came out was: “I have an offer too good to refuse.” I was cringing as the words left my mouth. The receiver laughed. I asked for ten minutes. He said yes.
On the morning of the appointment, I prayed over everything. The dress, the words, the journey. I arrived at Baker Street early and deliberately slowed down on the escalator, because I still did not know what I was walking in there to say. I had no deck, no projections, no carefully prepared presentation. Just myself.
Three buyers sat in that room as I rambled on, and I could tell I was losing them. I could see it in their body language. Then something happened. A still, small voice cut through the noise in my head and said: tell them your story; tell them the story of what you have built.
So I did. I told them the story of The Baby Cot Shop, Chelsea. They did not move until I had finished. Then one of them said, “Even though we are known for beauty and fashion and not furniture, we would love to have you.”
The entire appointment lasted twenty-five minutes. Twenty-five minutes. After three years of avoidance and a five-minute phone call. That is the mathematics of procrastination, and it is staggering when you see it laid out plainly like that. The thing I had constructed into an almost insurmountable obstacle in my mind resolved itself in the time it takes to watch half a television programme.
There are two things I want you to take from this.
The first is this: the thing you are avoiding is rarely as large as you have made it. Fear can be misleading. It builds structures in the mind that look imposing, solid, and permanent. But they are not. They are made of time you have spent imagining the worst rather than walking towards the opportunity. That call, that meeting, that conversation, that application will almost certainly take far less out of you than the avoidance already has.
The second is this: the most powerful thing you can bring into any room is not a polished deck or a set of impressive projections. It is the truth of what you have built and why. That authenticity, told with conviction, has never failed me.
Thirteen years later, The Baby Cot Shop is on the fourth floor of Harrods, and it all started with a decision to stop procrastinating and take a step. So ask yourself today: what are you procrastinating on?
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