Persistence

Thursday, May 6, 2010 :

Woke up at 4:45am.

5:00 Showered.

5:15 Ate breakfast.

5:45 Walked up the street for a newspaper.

6:10 Checked ebay, emails, blog, auction zip.

6:45 Mapped out garage sales after reading paper.

7:00 Left house for 1st garage sale.

7:15 Got to sale before anyone else...purchased nothing. Complete waste of time.

8:00 to 12:00 Went to 18 garage sales. Bad morning, spent a total of $20, probably should have spent $0.00!!

10:00 Took a phone call from local storage company who needed an auctioneer. Set up appt. to see them in late afternoon.

12:00 - 2:00 Listed on ebay, cut grass and washed van.

2:45 Bought flowers for Stephanie (Mothers Day! Don't forget.)

3:00 Filled car with gas. Giant Eagle (local supermarket) Get Go saved $1.60 a gallon.

3:30 Arrived at auction that began at 4:00

4:00 - 5:45 Spent $375 at auction. Great auction expect to make a few hundred dollars.

6:00 Met with storage unit people.

6:15 Came to agreement to sell the units.

6:30 Arrived back at auction to meet Stephanie. She came there after work to see me. Of course I wasn't there when she got there. She didn't mind and was happy that I got the auctioning job.

7:00 Spent another $125 and stayed to the end of the auction.

8:00 After loading purchases from the auction got back home.

9:00 Too tired to cook so we ate out at Olive Garden.

10:00 Sat down at home.

10:30 Went to Bed. Stayed there until 4:40 Friday.

Pretty much a typical day. There are times when I go out and just can't miss. Today however the garage sales were pretty lame. I didn't let it bother me. I approach bad moments with the attitude that the next place will present great opportunity. It almost always does.

Sometimes the key to success is persistence. At anytime during the day I could have stopped, gone home to watch t.v. and relaxed. I didn't. Looking for every chance to "make it" finally paid off when I least expected it. The auction and the agreement to sell the storage units were the good payoffs. The rest of the day as far as business goes pretty much sucked.

This business can be frustrating at times. You work and work and work with what seems at the time, no hope of a payoff. Then out of nowhere good things happen. I guess that life in general is that way. The antiques business just magnifies it because instead of the payoffs happening on Friday's with the receipt of a paycheck, the payoffs occur every time you make a good purchase.

In life (and the antiques business) never give up. Persistence and a willingness to do whatever is needed to obtain your goals will always pay off. Even if it doesn't happen when you expect it to.