Tonight was the opening event of our Spring Board Conference at UVU where I serve as Chairman of the National Advisory Board for the business school. We have our board conferences twice a year, once in the Fall and once in the Spring, and it takes a lot of work to get ready for them so in the weeks leading up to it I don’t get much sleep at all, and this week it’s been that way to an extreme. I’ve been getting maybe three or four hours of sleep at most all week. I tell you that because it sets things up for the next part of the story…which is the rather embarrassing part….
I was scrambling to get things ready and I was rushing because I was going to be late to the big opening event that I was in charge of conducting, which would have been pretty awkward…so I throw on my high heels and grab my coat and jump into the car with my husband. We drive down to the building with me still furiously typing away on my cell phone trying to respond to messages and last minute details needing to get handled. We park and I step out of the car and I notice that one high heeled shoe feels quite a bit tighter than the other one…”that’s strange” I thought…I then looked down at my feet to see I was wearing two different shoes on each foot.
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” I couldn’t believe I had seriously put on two different shoes when I was about to walk into a room full of incredibly successful business leaders and stand in front of all of them to conduct this opening event. Oh yeah, did I mention there wasn’t going to be a podium to hide myself behind at the front of the room? Cause there wasn’t! It was just me and a wireless microphone standing for all to see.
At that point I knew I had one of two choices. I could try to pretend I wasn’t wearing two different shoes and hope that nobody would notice, which would have left me worrying all night “have they noticed?”, or I could just lay it out there for all to know I was wearing two different shoes on my feet and then not sit and worry that anyone was noticing all night. I chose the latter. I announced to everyone that yes, I was in fact wearing two different shoes on my feet and I was completely and totally embarrassed for doing that. We all had a good laugh at my stupidity and then we were able to go on and have a fantastic opening event.
It makes life much easier when we just own our mistakes – And then have a good laugh about them. Because “Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.”
Have a great weekend everyone!
~Amy Rees Anderson
