My wife recently had a birthday and the celebration with friends and family turned out great, but the planning process wasn’t exactly smooth sailing.
Planning group dinners for large parties in NYC isn’t the easiest thing to do. Or, at least it’s not for me. It’s something that I’d add to the dreadful column of life. I’m not an event planner at all!
We were in Europe the two weeks prior to her birthday so I was a little late on the planning process and had about 10 days to get my act together and make something happen.
The restaurants of choice were proving to be very complicated in regards to logistics and options. For instance, choice number one decided to implement a prefix menu that was going to be $120 per person. This is a joint where the and average meal normally costs around $30 per person max. And the prefix menus didn’t include one or two options that I knew were favorites amongst our group.
Her birthday was now in seven days and I didn’t have a plan. My back was up agains a wall.
As with business and other life situations, some of our best work is done when we seemingly have no options. This forces us to dig deeper and become aware of options and strategies we may have previously overlooked. It’s an awesome door to open.
The week before her birthday I was walking to the subway to hop on the 1 train to head downtown. I took the same walking route that I always do. And I observed things as I always do. Then, suddenly, BAM! It hit me.
There’s this amazing jazz club near our house that, for some insane reason, we’d never gone too. Better yet, it’s something my wife would have never expected us to do. Once I made it to work I got on the phone with their group planner and the next thing you know… we had a birthday celebration taking shape!
The night went off well and a good time was had by all. The jazz was great, the sound wasn’t too loud… and the fried chicken. Well, that’s another post all together.
The next time your back is up against a wall and you’ve run out of options, don’t stop looking. Think of the walls as speed bumps instead of stop signs. Take your time to get over them, but whatever you do, don’t stop trying.
