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Yellow Vette

You may be wondering... why is the DD Lawrence newsletter called the yellow vette?

On the surface its name doesn't appear to have anything to do with career management, leadership or sales performance issues but trust me - it does.

First I'll tell you that I married into a family completely enamored with good old fashioned "muscle cars." As each newly acquired vehicle joined our family I would jokingly ask, "Where's mine?" One day my joshing received a serious response, "Let's find you a play car of your own." Now I had unknowingly unleashed a monster and his search for my ultimate car began in earnest.

While the idea of a play car, a corvette, was tempting I had no difficulty creating my list of arguments as to why buying a car of this kind would be impractical and foolish. I'll share just a few.

  • We live in NY. It snows, it's cold and there's no room in the garage for it. The space is taken up by his own "garage queens."
  • I work in NYC (at the time). Do you really want me to park it in the lot everyday and drive it through the 10th avenue potholes?
  • We're already Allstate Insurance's best customer. I don't work to keep their stock healthy.
  • $$ - only two signs instead of four because its an '87 instead of a '03. However, is it worth $$ for something I'll get limited use out of?

I was pretty stuck and resistant in all the reasons why I shouldn't buy the car. Never did I stop to consider all the reasons why I should. As you can see, I did buy the car and of all people to convince me to go for it, it was my financial advisor. He asked me a series of questions to ratchet up the pressure (could he be in cahoots with my husband?).

  • "What are you working for?" - HMMM?
  • "What's the worst that can happen?" - I SELL IT.
  • "What's the big deal about being impractical once in a while?" - OUCH!

I answered the questions and caved into the pressure to take the risk and move out of my safe practical comfort zone. It was only years later that I came to fulkly appreciate what that car represented and all the wonderful reasons why it was wise to buy it. Certainly it's given me incredible joy and loads of fun but it also ignited a desire to find more "vettes" in my personal and professional life.

So I come back to my contention that the "yellow vette" is relevant to making career decisions, leadership choices and sales breakthroughs. We often come up with a list of reasons why we can't change jobs, take a risk, set up with an idea or pitch a big proposal. We don't usually spend as much time thinking about the reasons we should.

Whether it's a career management issue, a leadership challenge or sales performance goal the yellow vette symbolizes:

  • The courage it takes to move faster and shift gears in ways you never thought you could
  • The confidence it takes to stand out in the crowd and be noticed
  • The determination to seize more of your professional and personal life enjoying the rewards of your hard work

It also serves to remind us to take some risks and trust our talent knowing that while some choices work and some go awry, there's no rule that says we're stuck with the result. We always get to make another choice.

What's your "yellow vette" and what does it represent to you when you think about your own challenges and opportunities?


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