aka: #ChandelierStory illustrates that we get what we focus on from life
Once I bought a red car. Before that day, I hadn’t really noticed red cars but suddenly the freeways were dominated by them…then came the chandelier.
About a year into living with my future husband, and at a hard time in the USA, which was suffering from yet another recession, we found ourselves on the streets of downtown Glendale, stepping over the sleeping bags of the homeless (Yeah, it sucked. Yeah, we bought a lot of blankets and energy bars that year). Looking into the window of a lighting store that was going out of business, I saw the most beautiful Strauss Schonbek 32% leaded multi-tiered chandelier that my eyes had ever beheld. Now, we were both working 12 hours days 7 days a week at a start up business and every dollar went back into that business so even thinking about a purchase like this was a complete pipe dream…and the fact that we lived in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment with ceilings about as high as the chandelier was tall was another noteworthy fact. The problem was that once I had seen that chandelier, it became the object of my obsession. I visualized working that damned business so hard and well that we would own a mansion with 30+ foot ceilings and we NEEDED that chandelier because it was going for 10% of its value and we would never pay the real price…even as future mansion dwellers. Fearful of its possible purchase by somebody who didn’t truly and deeply love it, I shared my guilty obsession with my mate.
As u can imagine, there was a lot of laughter and sensible logic that followed…but that did not deter me.
I explained to him flatly that we NEEDED this chandelier for the future mansion that we would be owning and I would make all of the weird arrangements on how to build a virtual house around it to keep it pristine and I would personally rent a truck and beg my grandparents to give up their unused car spot in the garage to house it…but we NEEDED it and time was not our friend.
Taking it purely on faith (reason #812 that I love him)-we bought that damned chandelier…but here is where it gets weird. My OCD had not fully played out and I held a secret dream close to my chest. See, the chandelier had a big,, beautiful cousin. Same lines but even more monstrous. There was about a 12’ drop and the beast was twice the price but beyond magnificent.
There were 3 days left until the store shuttered 4ever and I was growing desperate. I considered doing a sneaky purchase but we were both completely invested in the business and it didn’t feel fair to extract capital without consensus. I should probably explain that we both drove 10 year old cars and lived very modestly…so this was pretty much completely weird…(but I mean a $25,000 chandelier for $2,000…c’mon!)
I invited one of his best friends to dinner in our tiny city shoebox of an apartment. This guy had moved out to an exclusive and revered gated community and hired a contractor to build him a mansion. He was a sports loving, calloused hand giant of a man…but he was the only person I had ever met who lived in a mansion…so I had a plan.
James, of course, was chomping at the bit to share the story of how I was crazy and he was probably even crazier for going along with me. His friend hooted and hollered in good spirit and then I broke it down for both of them…informing them that the wild ride was not quite over because we HAD to go to that store tomorrow directly after work and buy the big cousin chandelier. I explained that our future mansion would be perfectly served by the graceful smaller chandelier that sat over our elegant dining room with its soaring 30’ ceilings…but we HAD to do something about the entry. To my great surprise, this big, tough man was completely on my side and explained to James how very vital this purchase was.
3 years later, we were living in a small condo in that gated community for the purpose of me stalking every house with an unmowed lawn to leap upon an opportunity. One day, we were driving down a steep street and at its base, was an architecturally stunning 3 story glass house that looked like no other. My (now) husband turned to me and said: someday you are going to buy me a house like this…so I did.
The chandeliers had their perfect place to reside in the world and they had given me the motivation to create a laser like focus on building a successful business to produce that result.
Takeaway-NO DREAM IS TOO BIG. Keep it in your heart and head and u will find yourself beating a path to its door.
Love #COAFSE