I Choose Possibility

A reflection on business, perspective, and choosing what comes next

There is one question I have always found strangely awkward to answer: “How is business?”

In the jewelry industry, we ask each other this all the time. I hear it from vendors,

other jewelers, people I meet at shows, and friends in the industry.

My answer is usually very simple. “Good.”

And sometimes I get this look. Almost like I gave the wrong answer. Because there is always something we are supposed to be worried about.

The economy is bad. Natural diamond prices are dropping. Lab-grown diamonds

are changing the market. Gold prices are too high. Customers aren't spending.

Business is slow.

And the funny thing is, after all these years in business, I have realized something: There will always be something.

There will always be a reason to complain. But there will also always be an

opportunity. Throughout my career, I think I have naturally chosen to look for the possibility instead of staying focused on the problem.

That doesn't mean my business is amazing every single month. Of course it isn't.

Some months the improvement shows up in our numbers. Other times, the

improvement is happening internally. We are building a better team. Fixing a

system. Learning something. Changing our marketing. Improving the customer

experience. Planting something that we may not see the result of for another six

months or even another year.

I don't judge my business from one snapshot. I look at the whole picture. And most importantly, I compete against ourselves.

Are we becoming better than we were before?

That question matters much more to me than whether everyone else thinks the

market is good or bad.

Then COVID Happened

When everything shut down in 2020, I was scared too. Nobody knew what was

going to happen.

I didn't know whether my business would survive. I remember thinking that if this

was somehow the end and I had to close my business for good, then at least I had

enjoyed the years I had spent building it.

There wasn't much I could control. So I started looking at what I could do.

I suddenly had more time with my children. I exercised more. I continued learning

piano. I learned new things.

And I stayed connected to my customers.

I kept posting on social media. I kept talking about jewelry. I kept sharing things

that made me excited.

Then something unexpected started happening. People began messaging me about jewelry.

At first, it almost didn't make sense to me.

Who is thinking about jewelry right now?

The world was shut down. But then I understood. Life hadn't stopped.

Birthdays were still happening. Anniversaries were still happening. People were

still falling in love and getting engaged. People still had milestones they wanted to celebrate.

In fact, because they couldn't travel or go to restaurants or celebrate in the ways

they normally would, some of them wanted something lasting and meaningful

instead.

Jewelry.

A few manufacturers were still able to work, so I started taking orders. Little by

little, while everything around us seemed closed, we were doing business.

And somehow, 2020 and 2021 ended up becoming even better years for my

business than the year before.

I never could have predicted that when the shutdown began. But it taught me something I have never forgotten: You don't always need to know where the opportunity is. You just have to remain open enough to see it when it appears.

Even the Bad Things

A few years ago, two men came into my store and distracted us while they stole

approximately $100,000 worth of jewelry.

It was devastating.

There was nothing positive about being robbed. Going through the insurance claim, realizing someone had walked into something I had built and stolen from me - it was horrible.

But eventually the insurance claim was paid. And one day I looked at the situation differently.

Those three rings had represented a significant amount of money sitting in

inventory. Now that money was liquid again.

I could reinvest it. I could buy inventory that made more sense for where my

business was going. I could put the money somewhere that might serve the

business better.

I couldn't change what those men had done. But I could decide what I did with what happened next. And I think there is a very big difference between those two things.

What Are You Looking For?

Recently I was thinking about how easily our problems can become part of our

identity.

If you spend enough time talking about everything that is wrong - the economy,

your industry, your competition, your circumstances - you eventually train yourself

to look for more evidence that you are right. And you will find it. There is plenty. But I believe the opposite is also true.

If you train yourself to look for possibilities, you begin seeing those too.

I don't believe positive thinking means pretending everything is wonderful.

Sometimes things are terrible. Sometimes you lose. Sometimes you're scared.

Sometimes something happens to you that you absolutely did not deserve or

choose.

The question is what you do next.

Do I want to spend my energy proving how bad the situation is?

Or do I want to ask: What can I do with this?

Maybe that is why I still answer the same way when someone asks me:

“How is business?”

Good.

Not because every month is perfect. Not because there aren't problems.

But because as long as I am learning, improving, adjusting and looking for the next possibility, I don't think a difficult month gets to decide whether my business is good.

There will always be something to complain about.

I choose possibility.