After 140 years the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus has closed. When I lived in Detroit and the circus came to town, it was a big deal. Many made plans to go and see the extravaganza.  Those who went would remember the elephants, flying trapeze artists, lion tamers and clowns. We would try to talk our parents into letting us have cotton candy. The whole experience was exciting. If you want to get a sense of what the circus was watch the 1952 movie, “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

The other day I drove to an appointment to visit a client and the traffic backed up for several miles on my route. When the slowdown first occurred, I blamed it on Christmas shopping traffic and I allowed extra time. However, it turned out that a traffic light was out on a major intersection, and there was not a policeman to direct traffic. This created a three mile traffic snarl that made me 15 minutes late for an appointment. I have a rule that I’m never late for client appointments. I started to view my tardiness as a disaster, especially since I was meeting a client for the first time. However, after I thought about it; I started putting the situation in true focus. This was not a disaster; it was simply a minor problem or annoyance.

A number of times I have thought about the real estate costs for local churches. Often when you examine the total cost of a church’s real estate including the capital cost of the building, renovation, updating, mortgage payments, heating, cooling and other associated expenses; the building will consume a significant amount of a local church budget.

When customers visited “Natalie’s” water treatment business, she would talk about every detail of her product and service. She believed that education would sell the service. When a prospect looked at a water softener, she would overload them with details. If they glanced over at the iron filter, she gave them more information.  Too often, prospects felt so overwhelmed that they left without making a sale.

When the federal or state government passes legislation, the new laws produce seen and unseen results. Often what is unseen impacts us more than what we can see. The legalization of selling marijuana is one example.