Mind Over… Does It Even Matter?

Are you one or do you know someone that suffers from stress and anxiety before a certain event or simply uncertainty in general?

I can relate. A few years back, I was invited to do a jewelry fashion show and speak about the wonderful world of jewelry to a large group of ladies at one of the island's prestigious country clubs.

I was a nervous wreck from the moment I agreed to do it. I needed a state-of-the-art monitor and a large screen to project my detailed pictures of the particular pieces of jewelry I was talking about. This also required a computer program on a memory stick, complete with background music. I would also have to supply security and locked showcases for the many thousands of dollars worth of diamonds I would have on the premises, and I needed four ladies to model the jewelry. To many of you reading this, you would say “So what’s the problem?” My problem is when it comes to the Computer Technology Highway, I’m very much on a… Dusty Dirt Road.

Just thinking about what I had to do to make a professional presentation and not look like a complete idiot on stage gave me an ulcer and numerous gray hairs. Besides the fact, I don’t do well in large crowds, let alone having to speak to thirty-some-odd tables of some of the island’s most prestigious ladies. Terrified would be an understatement. Last time I spoke in public was in the grammar school gymnasium when I totally froze reciting The Gettysburg Address and I had to be physically removed from the stage.

I was fortunate to have a father-in-law who was not only computer savvy but a graphic designer as well and he was able to photograph and digitize all my jewelry on one memory stick that plugged into my laptop and monitor. I purchased all new audio and video equipment that we learned how to operate flawlessly.

The months before the affair had to be the worst three months in my life. The thought of standing in front of people kept me up at night. My wife made feeble attempts to give me the confidence I needed, but deep down I knew she knew I did not have a handle on this, and on more than one occasion I was considering canceling the whole affair.

By some miracle, it all seemed to come together. On the day of the affair, I showed up hours early only to find out the club insisted I use their monitor and screen that was half the size of the one I had, and neither my father-in-law nor I could figure out the archaic monitor, let alone the sound system.

Swell… I spent all that money on visual and audio equipment for nothing (Which, by the way, I’ve never used any of it since). 

We finally got the club's equipment to function…or did we? From that moment on, everything went sideways. One of my models canceled at the last minute, and that was a big problem. But as P.T. Barnum once said, “The Show Must Go On.” It was a disaster from the start. No one could hear me at the back of the ballroom, and there was no background music playing. I could not leave the podium and tell my wife out back that after the second model left the stage, the next models were not wearing what was pictured on screen, so things were not in sync. I immediately had to ad-lib because it did not take the audience very long to see the problem. I began to sweat profusely in my three-piece suit. I somehow got it together, and then somehow, out of the blue, a picture of my beloved dachshund Phoebe filled the screen when she was a puppy. I made a joke on “how did that get there?” and about how this is not something I would normally do and apologized for the audio/visual snafus. I then introduced a question-and-answer session. The questions were intelligent, and the ladies seemed impressed with my answers. Despite a rough start, it rolled on very well and to my surprise, several of my important diamond pieces sold that day and many more in the days after.

Was the whole thing worth the pre-affair pain and anguish? In some ways, yes. Will I ever do it again?? A resounding NO!