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Wild Turkeys!

September, 2014

By Jeff Pinyot

My daughter Caroline (we call her CJ) and I have an ongoing joke. At the most inopportune time and most outrageous place, I exclaim, “CJ, this would be a great time to look for Wild Turkeys!” She’ll not even laugh, but give a 16 year old snarl and she’ll roll her eyes up into her head, hoping to hide from a father that just won’t go away.

As one who is responsible for seeing a business prosper, grow, and increase its position on the radar, I daily turn stones over that are sometimes so small that I could flick them with my index finger and they’d shoot into orbit. Some stones are so large that it would take a construction crane to turn them over. No opportunity is too small or too large for a company that is honed in on success.

I was thinking the other day about Caroline and the other Caroline’s out there who may not see the value of looking in obscure places for their prize. In my example with CJ, the prize is literally to see a wild turkey in an obscure place like the side of a six lane highway, a most unlikely place. I think looking for a wild turkey in a place where you wouldn’t expect one is a symbol of expecting the unexpected.

It is no surprise that as a small company just over seven years old, we have found huge successes where few felt we would find them. From the nation’s largest airports to proud college campuses, we have found our “Wild Turkeys” thriving. No turkey has ever come up to us and said,

“I’m here.”

Just weeks ago, while traveling from Indianapolis to NYC, a 13-hour drive on major highways, hundreds and hundreds of miles of pavement in front of my blurry eyes, just one time I made that familiar announcement to CJ. We were traveling somewhere along the narrow, winding Pennsylvania Turnpike and I had that feeling. Only one time in the entire trip did I advise CJ that it was time. Yes, it was that time. I said, “CJ, this would be a great time to look for wild turkeys.” Rounding the corner, coming into view, standing proudly just off the turnpike were two beautiful, wild turkeys feasting on whatever they could find in the narrow grass strip, just off the highway. Note that these were the only two wild turkeys we saw in 26 hours of a roundtrip drive. We laughed and were amazed at the timing of the call, the one call of the entire trip.

As you move forward in your life and in your business, first, determine what your wild turkeys are, next, learn where to look for your wild turkeys, then learn to predict when your wild turkeys will arrive so that you will be ready for them, and finally, enjoy the beauty and the fruit of your labor.

 


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