Blog | Entrepreneurship

The Importance of Flexibility

How to Manage Your Schedule

When Josh and I started traveling back in the mid 90’s, I would fill our schedule from morning to night. I thought that if you were going somewhere new and exciting, one must maximize the time and fill the calendar tight!

I wanted to see and do everything. Always the adventurous one, I didn’t want to miss anything. So I packed in as much as I could on the trip, at least the first couple days, then allowed for some flexibility.

This drove Josh nuts on our first trip to Hawaii. He’s a native of Hawaii so he wasn’t about getting up at 6am to sightsee – haha! We still got everything in, just not in the first two days.

We carry that same principle today in business. We have schedules, but also know there is an ebb and flow to things. We realized there are times we need to be flexible.

The point of flexibility is to open the space and allow for movement. Being flexible applies to your thinking, your scheduling and your own personal agenda.

Often times, we get stuck in our own points of view and what we have to do at this very moment.

When we’re so rigid that we see our way as the “right way”, this violates a principle of the universe. For the ones that are rigid and stiff are the ones who are closest to death and tend to break during the hard times.

Think of when you sit at a desk all day at work. When it’s time to get up, your back and legs are stiff. Your body is giving you feedback that it’s time to get up and get the juices flowing to bring life back in.

Not only is it good to keep our bodies in motion, but our minds, beliefs and agendas as well.

Our Journey to Texas

Before Josh and I were ready to close on our property that is now Warriors Heart, we talked about driving there instead of flying. Now it’s about a 17-hour drive from Phoenix, AZ (where we were at the time) to San Antonio, Texas. Why did we decide on a road trip? Because of the flexibly. We could spread out the trip over a couple of days without being tied to a hotel (which gave us flexibility on which towns to pass through), and it gave us time to plan.

Doing so allowed us to come up with a very strategic plan. We made a list of all the top treatment centers, detox hospitals, and experts in the industry and grouped them on a map. We had the intention of connecting with as many people and facilities as we could on our way to the property. We called and set up as many meetings as we could.

But I decided that I could not go. I decided to stay home with our kids while Josh went with one of our friends and team members, Chris DeMeo (a retired Police Officer who oversees our 24-hour help hotline).

While the boys were in Texas, I still worked. It was all part of our plan to stay flexible. So, I helped set-up a press release “Warriors Heart Announces First Ever Private Inpatient Healing Center for Veterans, Military, Law Enforcement and First Responders in 2016”. The press release was picked up by over 200 news media the first few hours.

Early that evening I got a call from our contact at our PR firm, Liz. She was super excited and told me that she landed an interview on the San Antonio morning news at 5:30 am the next morning. However, she needed an answer ASAP, to lock it in.

I called Josh while he and Chris were on the road and told him about the interview. Knowing their schedule and where they were, it was not close to the TV station. If we were going to make this happen, it would be a very early day and require a lot of flexibility on their part.

But Josh and Chris were in. They started working out the logistics and figured that they were an hour and a half away from the news station. Which meant that they had to be up at 3:00 am, check out of the hotel, and drive to the station. And it was already 9:30 pm when I called Josh and told him that we had to make a decision. So, while the boys grabbed a quick bite to eat, Liz and I worked with the station on the details.

Everything came together. The boys made it to the interview and that 3-minute time slot scored us an even bigger segment on Fox 10 News.

This is the power of a team who has flexibility.

Flexibility is a Gift

That’s the beauty of entrepreneurship, we all tend to be so busy, tight schedules, meetings, kids, etc. that we can get stuck in a routine. But as business owners and investors, we know that flexibility is a gift in problem solving, growing and creating new opportunities.

Learn more about how flexibility played a role in the creation of our social entrepreneurship endeavors by reading our book.

If you would like to learn more, check us out at Warriors Heart addiction treatment center for veterans and first responders here.