If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail ✍️
I'll always remember these words a former CEO told me.
If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.
That preparation is key became obvious when I had a meeting yesterday with 2 agencies I work with.
One agency is already in our portfolio for many years and visited our (old) office a few times before. As for the other, we recently started collaborating.
The idea was to have a joined meeting, to introduce each other and talk about our future collaboration. For the sake of a good introduction, we decided to have the meeting face-to-face at our (new) office.
A good preparation for this meeting would have been to double-check our office location. However, both failed to do so.
One went to our old office location, from which we moved 1,5 years ago, while the other went to our head office assuming that would be the correct location. Luckily for both, they didn't have to travel that far to my office, but still, valuable time was wasted and I can't help but think that some credibility and trust got lost.
Preparation doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as confirming a location, reviewing notes, or making sure you’ve covered all your bases. When you neglect the small steps, you open the door to bigger issues. Take that extra minute. It might be the difference between a successful outcome and a missed opportunity.
Because, as the saying goes, if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.