Procratinating
- Bruno@Racingwithbruno
- 20 hours ago
- 3 min read
Procrastination is a funny word
Sometimes life is like a comedian standing in front of you, throwing jokes your way, and somehow, buried inside the punchline, there is a covert message.
I deal with this kind of hysteria every day.
One of my favorite lines is:
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
I probably say it more than I should.
But here is the thing: we cater to our customers. We love hearing from them. We love it when somebody writes to tell us they hit the Pick 6 at Del Mar off a 4 star work. Way to go, Chris!...a score of $406K.....
Athat'swhatIamtakingbout!!!
We get little notes from people saying they enjoy the blogs, the stories, the analysis.
I'll take that every day of the week. Keep'em coming~!
But the funniest things that happen around here aren't even racing-related.
Not even close.
Take discounts.
Every once in a while, we offer some savings. We like doing it. We know everybody likes a deal.
I like a deal.
You like a deal.
Your Uncle Vinny likes a deal.
The problem is, my payroll is about $250,000 a year, so the margins aren't exactly wide enough to land a 747 on them. I don't want to keep raising prices. In fact, my prices have been relatively stable for about 10 years.
So when we run a discount, we mean it.
We put it out there.
We announce it.
We give you the opportunity to save money.
And a number of players take advantage of it.
Excellent.
But then there are the others.
I don't know how many don't read our emails, and frankly, I don't want to know the percentage because that information could put me directly into “Why do I even bother?” mode.
So I run the discount.
It ends.
Prices go back to normal.
Sometimes I may even have to raise them slightly.
And then...
Boom!💥
Suddenly, I start hearing from people.
Two weeks later.
A month later.
Three months later.
And THE EMAIL --
It is usually a forward of the original email I sent 90 days ago, the one that clearly announced the discount.
And underneath it:
“Can I still get the discount you promised on the subscription?”
Madonna mia!
It has taken you 90 days to get back to me about a discount?
Ninety!
You can't walk into your neighborhood Piggly Wiggly three months after the bacon went on sale and stroll up to the cashier with the newspaper clipping saying, “I'd like the sale price.”
Try it.
See where that goes.
You can ask for the manager.
You can explain your position.
You can incoherently babble, in a foreign language, your displeasure while the manager looks at you like you have just arrived from another planet.
“No, sir. We can't do that.”
Now, maybe I'm the dumb one.
Because I probably would find some middle ground and give in to the procrastinator.
And therein lies the whole ball of wax.
Procrastination.
Wait.
Wait some more.
Think about it.
Wait again.
Then forget about it.
Then remember.
Then make an excuse.
Then find another excuse.
Then, 90 days later, send me the email.
It is an amazing human trait.
And it doesn't stop with customers.
I've got one of my guys who helps record and analyze works.
He'll top the works.
They're right there.
Finished.
Saved.
Done.
Everything is sitting on his computer.
And then...
Nothing.
He doesn't email them.
Why?
I have no idea.
Maybe he's waiting for the moon to enter the seventh house.
Maybe Mercury is in retrograde or a discount.
Maybe he's waiting for the horse to work back into the race.
II don't know.
Eventually, I have to extract the works from his grasp so I can load them into our database.
It's like a tug-of-war.
Every day
Me on one side.
The works on the other.
Every day
And somewhere in the middle is procrastination, smiling.
Which brings me to an old line.
Who was it who said, “Paranoia will destroy ya?”
Oh, yes.
The Kinks. 1981
Ray Davies.
Well, Ray, I have an update for you.
You're 82 years old now, so you've earned the right to hear this:
In my world, 'procrastination will destroy ya.'
Ya ya!
So don't wait three months.
Don't forward me an ancient email.
Don't wait until the sale is over and then ask if you can still get the sale price.
Get your discount today.
Tomorrow is already busy enough.
