We checked into the hotel in Winston-Salem after a long day of travel. after unloading the car and relaxing for a few minutes, we decided to get some carry out food and bring it back to the hotel…but where to order from?
“Siri, Find a Restaurant Nearby”
Like most people these days, we opened up our smart phone map and searched for nearby restaurants. What appeared were mostly fast foot establishments which we had already tired of after our days on the road. We wanted more of a prepared meal from a mainstream establishment but our choices were slim with only one choice in the immediate vicinity of the hotel.
No Buffalo Wild Wings? No Outback? No Applebees? No Chilis? There seemed to be nothing nearby and when we actually searched for a brand name restaurant using the “search” function of the mapping tool and were able to find a few locations…8-10 miles away. It was predicted to be a 14-21 minute drive.
Now when you’re in a strange city that you’ve never been to before, you could just accepted the results and plan your dinner time around a 30-40 minute round trip commute to grab food. Or you could have been that egotistical consumer (like I was) and thought to yourself, “the map must not be showing everything. There has to be something closer.” I was sure that I could outsmart Google Maps so I just told the family, “I’m going to get in the car and find something. Stay by your phone and I’ll text you for your order.”
Long story short, I drove around what seemed like 35% of the greater Winston-Salem area and found less restaurants than I found Family Dollar stores. I’m not kidding you. I found 3 fast food joints and 4 Family Dollar stores. At one point I thought to myself, “Seriously….where they hell do these people eat in this town?” I kept pulling over and searching my iPhone map for some place that might serve food to no avail. I was getting hungry which meant that my family back in the hotel room was starving so I finally acquiesced and plugged one of those chain restaurants 8 miles away into my phone. Now though, thanks to my aimless driving just searching for some oasis of food, it was more like a 16 mile drive.
Almost 2 hours after I left in my quest for food, we ate our dinner. It was good but it also could have been digesting in our system by the time pulled back in to the hotel parking lot had I just trusted the original map I saw.
Which Map Are You Following?
Do you have systems and protocols in place in your business? Do you follow them or have you reached a point in your business that you feel you can “feel your way” through the process to success? At what point are you going off the grid to finish a task instead of going from step 3 to step 4?
Imagine how you’d feel if the pilot on your next flight didn’t follow instructions? What if your surgeon just had a feeling that there might be a shortcut to your gall bladder? I’m sure your mechanic could second guess that diagnostic device that suggests he replace the brakes but are you going to feel comfortable driving your family on his “intuition”?
If you’re going to have tools and technologies that you use in your daily life – both personally and professionally, then you should probably put a large amount of trust in those systems. If you don’t feel that you can trust them, then find better systems. I’m not sure how valuable your time is to you but if it’s worth anything, when you find yourself second guessing the instructions or guidance you get then it’s time to get a new source of information.
It’s one thing to trust your gut…but when in doubt, Google works pretty good too. Maybe because it doesn’t think with its belly.