I just needed to vent just a little bit. I have spent the last few hours looking up new networking groups/organizations to add some new clients to my business to get it up and running again. Yet as I looked through all the groups within my city and those on the internet and national level my fustration began to really grow and I found myself becoming angry.
Everyone always talks about how the were able to start their business through networking and sharing with other people but has anyone ever stopped and looked at the fees associated with these groups that are set up to help businesses both SMALL and large? I mean really!!!!! I saw one that had membership dues based on how many employees that you had and the lowest one was $249 and that didn't include the one time $25-$30 fee to get you enrolled. Think about that for a second. Let's say that you are starting a business and you have 10 employees and you have only been in business for 3 or 6 months. Now business has been good but most businesses don't turn a major profit within the first year or two but in order to add some new customers you find yourself turning to networking groups. You find two or three that you like and each has fees ranging from $250 to $500. And that isn't counting having to pay at every meeting. These groups are robbing us blind.
There is one group that I really want to join because I have heard such great things about how their networking is really great. Yet it is like $200 application fee and then somewhere around $250 or $270 yearly dues plus you have to pay like $15 dollars for every meeting because they offer breakfast. And to top it off you can only miss like 2 or 3 meetings within the year before your membership is SUSPENDED. Are you kidding me? I didn't pay that much to apply to college and I know that I missed way more than 2 or 3 classes without my teachers telling me I couldn't come back. That is just crazy. Plus I don't think I have ever gone to breakfast and spent $15 on just me. I could take my whole team out for breakfast for that and might actually have some left over depending on where we go.
Maybe I'm in the wrong business. Maybe I should start a networking group and just invite people to join. Because really what are you paying $200 dollars for? To be able to sit around with a group of people that you didn't know that can recommend you to their friends and family. I think I could find people that most didn't know and let them tell each other about their business and then exchange business cards and even with renting a room I still could come out ahead.
Well I just needed to vent and now I feel a little better and can go back to figuring this out. Maybe I could find a nice women's chat club that is free and just take some business cards to them and see what happens.

So as I am sitting here in a still moment where I have time to think and just randomly watching tv while waiting for American Idol (I pomised my cousin) I find myself watching a new show called "Moment of Truth". From what I understand of this show people are attached to a lie detector and then asked horrible and life destroying questions for money. Who does this? Why would you subject your family and friends to this kind of torture? At least with those crazy shows like "Fear Factor" or "Survivor" (neither of which I have ever seen) they are only risking themselves or their own comfort factor, but with this show they are not only answering VERY personal question about themselves and their relationships but they are doing it in front of those family and friends. WHY? How desperately do you need this money? Sure I would love to win $100,000 or $200,000 or $500,000 or more for an hour worth of work; who wouldn’t? But I just couldn’t see hurting my family just for it and that is including the ones that really, really get on my nerves. With all the new reality shows that have taken over the air ways during the recent writers strike are they saying that they couldn’t find another way to win money?
However, I also was struck with another thought as I left it on to see just how far this woman would go; I was helping to keep this show on. I mean think about it. What does it say about our society that a show like this not only makes it on the air but stays on the air? How desesitized is our culture that this is considered entertainment?
Now many I have a different view because I personally think I would be boring on there. It would be like Britney Spears or Whitney Houston or Mother Theresa. Most already know everything or wouldn’t care about the answer because the questions would be so tame. Yet even if I had ex’s that could tell tales or parents that would cry at my past I just think I would have to be suck on stupid or desperate to do this and even then I think I would have to hire people to preteen to be family and friends. Do disregard someone’s feels and trust in me that way I might as well be taking them on Jerry Springer.
This is just something that has disaster all over it and I feel for not only those that created it but those that go on it. Because in the end even if you win the "grand" prize after everything that you have risked, revealed, and lost is it worth it? It’s like the Bible says, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his own soul".

Lately I have been really missing some people that use to be really big in my life and very discouraged with some of the people that are still in my life but today as I was riding home from a meeting things became really clear to me with four little words "a reason, a season". See one of the people that I have been missing in my life use to use this phrase often. She would always say that God puts people in your life for a reason and a season. Now I had come to the rational that not everyone was suppose to be in your life for all of your life a while ago, but I had not really heard it quite so consise and as I was in my car that really was the only thing going in my mind. Let me explain. I was on the phone with my director (business partner of sorts) and we were talking about a lot of different things that I had on my mind and she was just so encouraging. Now she is always encouraging but I must have really needed it tonight because I found myself just grinning like a complete idiot and not really caring and that was when it that saying found me.
Everyone that is in my life right at this moment has a reason and a season. Maybe the ones that are irritating me are there to show me patience or understanding or something that I haven't found yet. And maybe they are only in my life until I learn that and then they will move on. Yet there are those like my director who I feel are the perfect counterpoint for me that I hope are in my life for the long haul because I learn so much from them just from being around them. Allow me to tell a story. Many years ago when I was working in retail I was sent to a new store about 3 weeks after being promoted to management. I had loved my store and my head manager, but the store that I was going to also had a head manager that I had worked for previously and also liked and respected. I had just gotten a little comfortable with my new store and manager when she decided to step down and a whole new manager stepped in. Along with a new head manager we also go a new assistant manager who had been with the company for a few years in management and recently moved to the area. These two hit it off like gang busters. They were going to happy hour together and talking all the time and they were like best friends and even took one of the part-timers under their wing. Well the next thing I knew I was being written up for some foolishness that didn't even seem like I had done, but there it was. Never really being a quiet person I told her that I only felt that I was being written up because she didn't like me and that in all the years that I had worked for the company I had never even been given a warning. After that things got worse. I even went to our district manager and asked to be moved anywhere but there however it was Christmas and that is just not the time to move in retail. So I decided just to do the job and be ready after the holiday to go somewhere else. Yet as the months went on the head manager and I began to respect each other. I began to be given way more responsiblity and even ended up heading up one of the district divisions which was un-heard of for an assistant manager. Matter of fact by the time that I did end up getting transfered she told me that she had requested that I be allowed to stay because I was one of the best managers that she had ever worked with. I was amazed and then I realized that I felt the same about her. I had learned so much from her just by shutting up and doing my job and watching her do hers. Granted in the beginning I was just watching for her to mess up so that I could report her, but I learn a lot. I even use her as an example of what a head manager should be to this day and she is still the best manager I have ever worked under.
All of that is to say that yes it would be great if we got along with everyone in our lives everyday. And it would also be great if we could keep those that have touched us so much in our lives just a little bit long. But they have served their purpose and must move on to others to help and guide them as well and just as the had a reason and a season for our lives we had one for theirs. We might not ever know what that was but I like to think that those that run across my mind every once in a while are also thinking of me. That like myself they are wishing that we had had more time together, but also understand that it was not meant to be. I also like to think that those who find me confonding are also learning from me as I am from them. That when the reason or season is revealed we will look back with fondness and grace and know that we are better for our time together however short or long it was.