Once I was called to traffic court as a witness and found the proceedings interesting. A couple of cases highlighted the importance of not allowing one mistake to trigger a second and more serious error.

In one case a man was charged with failing to turn left from a left only lane.  Instead, he cut back into the right lane to go forward, cutting off the car in front. Unfortunately for the driver, there was a police cruiser behind the cut-off vehicle. The man told the judge that he found himself in a left only lane but realized he needed to go straight.  “What was I supposed to do?” the man asked.  The judge said that he should have turned left because he was in a left turn lane.  The judge pronounced the defendant guilty and issued a fine. The driver could have made the inconvenient left turn and still found his way to his destination with only minor inconvenience.  Because he didn’t, he ended up with a fine, a conviction on his driving record, and significant hours taken from his day.

Too often in business individuals fail to honor a promise and walk away as if nothing happened. It is important to remember that there are consequences to broken promises.  Here are some examples.

“Bill” wanted to rent a small office location mostly because of poor Internet service at home.  He agreed to sublease a room from another business who wanted to fill additional office space that was available. However, a short time later Bill’s home received a significant upgrade in internet service. Bill abruptly left the space he leased. He gave no thought to the business owner who took on more space to accommodate Bill. Bill’s decision left the owner paying several hundred dollars a month in an additional expense that was unplanned.

        The Bible and history paint a picture of King Herod as a great builder as well as a royal with spasms of paranoia.  While his building projects still bring thousands to see their ruins, Herod continues to be best known as the ruling pontificate of Judea who ordered the murder  of innocent children when the Magi did not return to tell him where Jesus was born.

      But Herod is more than the villain in our Christmas story.  Coins commissioned by Herod himself contribute more detail to this multi-layered man.

To survive, a business needs to sell. However, a key question involves what methodology and strategy you use to sell. Too often a business will fire out sales efforts to everybody they can hoping to land a sale. A lot of this effort is wasted because without proper customer qualification you really don’t know who an appropriate customer for your service or product is.

I’ve written several times before on the topic that we must listen and understand what the buyer wants and target a product focused on satisfying that desire. We can spend significant time in a situation where the prospective customer doesn’t really need or want what we offer. When we continue to pound on these individuals with hard selling, we simply waste our time. We barely have enough time to focus on those customers who do want what we offer.

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott suffered a severe ankle injury last Sunday which will require extensive surgery for repair.  While the star quarterback hopes to gain a full recovery, these types of injuries present unpredictable issues about whether a complete recovery is possible.

On the financial side, Prescott was reportedly offered a five-year contract worth $175 million. Instead he opted for a one-year deal reportedly around $30 million, not a bad paycheck. The quarterback was thinking that if the season was successful, this year’s open bidding might result in a more lucrative contract.

Now, with a severe injury, his financial future is cloudy.