Vital Self-Analysis

I received a robust reminder of reality yesterday when I was trounced by someone.  I’m currently running a beauty parade of suppliers for an aspect of a fresh endeavour.  I want to deploy that best-practice procurement irritant of getting down to a shortlist of two.  Achieving this means contacting a larger number of possibles.

One such vendor somehow turned around the psychology and made out like it was me that was the seller.  I was dumbfounded.  Surely she failed to grasp that it was me with the cash.  Yet she declined the opportunity to bid, citing reasons that were not only outside of her remit, but also in stark contrast to opinions given by her competition.

Now, you might think that this was a good thing.  After all, by precluding herself from the project, my decision would be easier.  But I didn’t feel good about it at all.  How dare she dismiss me!  Especially on such flimsy grounds!

And then the self-doubt crept in.  When everyone else is gung-ho on this project, it must have been something I’d done wrong to cultivate such disdain.  Was it my initial pitch?  Were my closes half-baked?  Had I made unfunny jokes at inappropriate times?

Forensic analysis threw up one obvious boo-boo.  Even from the start, thinking back, she was inattentive over the phone.  Suggesting I send her further info by email, I willingly obliged.  My mistake was to take this as progression.  It was in reality no more than the old “post me something” objection in modern-day attire.  My failure was not picking up on this.

I have given myself a stern talking to and resolve that I won’t fall for this again.  In the meantime, I have thought long and hard about what to do about this particular situation, and I reckon I can rescue something else positive from it, but my decision now though, is do I throw more possibly good time after bad?