by Kami Cornwall
Friday we drove to Olympia to make a business plan for a dream my husband has had for a year or two. He'd like to own a successful game shop. We had a name, a place picked out, and a list of vendors as well as how much money we would need for inventory.
Saturday my beagles rolled in a patch of death-stench that took two washings to get them to smell remotely sweet again...but that's another story.
The rest of the evening and most-part of Sunday evening we spent planning. We had a huge pad of paper on an easel to draw on, we printed out a business plan, it was all getting very real. On the way home my husband worked more on the plan and we contacted family for donations. It was so exciting! And scary.
We knew of one shop in our small town that was planning on expanding and moving to a new location so he decided to check them out before moving forward. He came back completely defeated. What we thought was a small-time operation with limited games turned out to be expanding into a large space with greater visibility than ours and the same plan as we had.
The dream had died.
In our economy? In our small town? Two game shops selling the same games? Neither of us would do well and one might even fail. It's too risky now.
I called my dad for some words of comfort and he said, "Yeah, this is only the first of what will probably be many dreams that you see dashed throughout your life." Good ol' dad. Always good for a pep talk.
I'm okay to just sit back and see how well the other shop does but my husband is still pretty depressed. How do you cheer up someone who got close to realizing a dream and then watched it run through their fingers like sand? I don't think, "Look, honey! I did the laundry!" is going to help.
"I made your favorite dinner?"
"I cleaned up the dog poop?"
"Everything is going to be okay?"
"I love you?"
"I love you" is always good, especially if followed by a physical manifestation of same.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry that your husband's and your dream is being dashed, especially after so much hard work. Is it possible that even though that door is closing, a window will open on another venture that will be satisfying?
I can so relate. I had reached a place where my dream had morphed into something else, more like a winding down in the "job" world and taking on other stuff. Then I got laid off from my dream job. It's only been 2 months and it still hurts. What helped? Asking myself what next instead of why me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Marsha.
ReplyDeleteOh me too. I am so sorry.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it feels a lot to him like repeated rejection letters do to us authors. I'm not always very good at advice or cheering people up, but what I want to say is that the failure of his dream isn't that he did anything wrong. Sadly, you can do everything right and still some dreams won't work out. Maybe it will in the future though, in some form or other. He shouldn't completely let go of that dream.
ReplyDeleteThat's a tough situation to be in, but this doesn't mean something better won't come along. Best of luck to you and your husband!
ReplyDeleteSamantha
Ditto what Marsha and the other gals said. Look at all the things you learned going through the process! Good for you! The next time you will come up with an even better and more successful plan. Nothing we do is ever lost...unless we choose to walk away from it. WE get to use everything we learn. big hugs~
ReplyDeletePlay the glad game like Pollyanna in the old movie. It works. Or how about doing something that makes you both giggle like kids again. We laugh or we cry. Laughing is always much more pleasant.
ReplyDelete