"Good morning. This is Carole," I chirped into the phone one morning. "Who is this?" I heard from a gruff male voice. "This is Carole" I repeated. "Oh. My wife Phyllis said I should call you," he announced. "Okay. Do I know Phyllis?" I asked, thinking perhaps I had met her in some prior class or workshop. "No, but I’m supposed to call you anyway."

It didn’t take much to see that this was going to be a more challenging conversation than the usual phone call. After more questions, I found out that the man’s name was Leo. He had been trying to sell his manufacturing business for a couple of years without any luck. He wanted to retire and spend his time golfing and fishing. He didn’t know anything about Feng Shui, had difficulty pronouncing it, and, quite honestly, he thought it was a little weird. But he knew that, if he was going to move this business out of his life and if he was going to appease his wife Phyllis, he needed some kind of help.

We talked about Feng Shui for a little while.
I could hear the machines running in the background. Every so often he had to shout out some instructions to someone during our conversation. It was obvious he was busy, was calling out of duty to his wife and wanted to get off the phone. We set up a time and date. I took down the address, phone number and directions as to how to get to the Midwest NoWayOut Manufacturing Co.

The morning of my appointment with Leo, I got in my car and realized that the gas tank was on empty. I’m usually very mindful of the status of fuel in my car, so this caught me off-guard. It would mean I would be a little crunched for time to get to Leo’s business, but I should still be all right. After a fill-up, I jumped on the freeway to be met with a flashing sign that said "Accident ahead. Prepare for delays." The accident was five miles ahead of where I got on the freeway and I was already at a stand-still. Great!

I waited to see how the traffic might begin to move. After twenty minutes, I decided I’d better call Leo to let him know I’d be late. I picked up my cell phone and my appointment book where I had recorded the phone number for his business. In the space where I always write phone numbers I had left a blank. I couldn’t remember ever having left out that detail before. Until now....

I dialed 411 to get the number of the Midwest NoWayOut Manufacturing Co. The operator assured me that there was no such number listed. I might have had the name wrong---maybe Upper Midwest.... or Minnesota....or Minneapolis (although they weren’t actually in Minneapolis).....Wait, she found something under MW NoWayOut. We confirmed the address and before I could ask for the number, she said "I’ll connect you."

The phone rang at the MW NoWayOut Manufacturing Co. A voice shouted "Yeah?" over the roar of the machines. I asked for Leo. "Who?" "Leo!" What?" "Is Leo there?" I’m shouting in my car. "Dunno." "Well, could you please tell him that Carole Hyder is calling?" I yelled. "Hang on." With that he hangs up and disconnects the phone! Of course, I hadn’t gotten the number from the operator so I couldn’t call back.

I waited again to see if the traffic would open up. It didn’t. I called the operator. Got the number. Called again. No answer.

I’m not having a good feeling about this appointment. I finally arrive at the address thirty minutes late. The name on the door of the business does not say MW NoWayOut Manufacturing Co. By now, I’m not surprised by anything. I walk in, ask for Leo. "Who?" "Leo." "Don’t know a Leo." I must be having a bad dream. A nice man from another cubicle sticks his head around and says "Are you looking for MW NoWayOut Manufacturing Co.?" Thank God, I’m not losing my mind. He directs me around the corner of the building. There’s a door on the side of the building with a handwritten sign leading me down to the basement. I descend into the roar of machines.

I ask a young guy who looks up from his machine if Leo is around. It seems Leo is not in----he’s at a golf outing with one of his vendors. He’s surprised that Leo would make an appointment with me for this particular day since the golfing event had been planned for weeks. I think back to the empty gas tank, the accident on the freeway, the missing phone number, the disconnection when calling, the difficulty in finding the place..... Should I be surprised by this news? I left my card. Never heard from Leo.

A couple days later, I receive a call from a young man named Troy asking to set up a consultation with me. He was the CFO of a business, attempting to expand its manufacturing division. Things just weren’t going smoothly and he thought I could help. When I arrived at his office a few weeks later, he was even more intent on making some changes. It seems that events were lining up to make an expansion, bigger than he had originally thought, but there was one glitch. A small business owner who, despite his apparent intention to sell, was reluctant to any of the offers that were made even though they had been quite generous. Unfortunately the whole expansion effort depended on this man. Yet he would forget to come to negotiations or would change his mind about issues he had previously agreed to. You guessed it---Leo from MW NoWayOut Manufacturing Co. Troy’s company was trying to buy him out. I chose not to share my prior experience with Leo due to my own confidentiality guidelines.

I spent a fair amount of time working in the Partnership area of Troy’s office. He was trying to work out an amenable deal between Leo and his company----this
was certainly a partnering issue. There was an obsolete computer in Troy’s office taking up space in the Partnership area. He hauled it out while I was still there. He also removed a clock that didn’t work and a broken desk. It’s not unusual to overlook things in our environment that may be impacting us negatively. Troy
was astounded at the obvious dead-end messages he was getting just from his office alone.

Within two days of my visit, Troy called to say Leo had surprisingly agreed to a deal, the papers were signed and the company would be re-locating Leo’s equipment by the end of the month. We chatted for a few more minutes and then I asked Troy how it was that he called me to come and assist in some Feng Shui adjustments around this issue. "Do you know Phyllis, Leo’s wife?" he asked. "I don’t know her" I answered. "Well, she called me a couple days after Leo skipped out on his appointment with you and said I should call you. I guess she knew what she was talking about."

I hung up the phone, once again silenced and humbled by the flow of Feng Shui. Thank you to Phyllis, whoever you are. I hope you and Leo are truly enjoying your retirement. By the way, if you’re reading this, Phyllis, you might want to hang a wind-chime in your Partnership area!