Miracles, life and business lessons make St. Patricks Day one of the most memorable yet.

I don’t know about you, but have you ever experienced a miracle?

I mean a miracle where you knew there was a force greater than you that was helping you in your life and or work here on earth? Has that happened to you?

Well it did to me, recently…and of all the days for it to happen, it happened on March 17th, St. Patty’s Day. I had the luck of the Irish with me that day, for sure. That weekend, I drove to Ottawa to visit my family. I left on Friday (St. Patricks Day) and it was a beautiful sunny afternoon. The 401 was pretty clear sailing and all seemed normal as I drove along my usual route, and then something happened. My radio shut off. Having no clue about cars, I began to wonder what had just happened. Within a few minutes of my radio shutting down, my RPM guage fell flat and my power windows wouldn’t go up. I had a problem…

A few more minutes went by as I drove along the 401 in the middle of nowhere. With no cell phone service in this area of highway, I started to panic a little. Then my speedometer fell flat as I drove about 110 km an hour. When my car engine started to chortle…and chug… I thought…this can’t be good, right?

Well I continued to drive. I drove to the next exit and got off near Brighton Ontario. My car stopped dead right on the road outside of a bed and breakfast on route into Brighton.

Miracle number one: My car had stopped in front of a beautiful bed and breakfast called the Butler Creek Country Inn. I wrapped on the door and waited for someone to answer. Thankfully someone did. I explained the situation with my car and told them of my problem. They invited me in and agreed to let me use the phone to call for help. In fact they helped direct me to the local Ford dealership. When I called the dealership, I discovered that they weren’t really able to commit to looking at or fixing my car that very afternoon, but they knew of another car care place that could. So they had me call Davis Automotive. And they arranged for a tow truck to pick me up in 20 minutes. They would look at and fix my car that afternoon.

LESSON NUMBER ONE…DON’T LET THEM SEE YOU PANIC…

Instead of panicking about my dilemma, I got to meet some friendly and gracious owners of a Bed and Breakfast. I got a tour of their really unbelievable home. Not only that, I got to call my family to notify them of what had happened and where I would be in the next hour or so as my car got repaired. If you look at this as a life or business lesson, here’s what I learned so far. When a problem hits, don’t panic too much and pray. Panicking doesn’t solve anything and prayer never hurts…

LESSON NUMBER TWO:

Lesson number two: Don’t be afraid to ask for help along your journey and be nice to those who help you. If you have business or life challenges, get the help you need. You never know what can come from just asking.

Always have a back up or a contingency plan. As I assessed the situation with my now dead car on the side of the road, I thought, “what’s the worst case scenario? I stay over night and am a little behind schedule on my trip into Ottawa to visit my family”. Although I kept the focus on my goal, I was prepared to take a detour along the way, if need be.

So, the tow truck came and off I went to the mechanic’s. (Davis Automotive) Thankfully they assessed the car and determined that it was just the battery and not the alternator. They ordered a battery specific to a Ford Contour, and replaced it pretty promptly. The phone call I had made at the bed and breakfast to my sister (letting her know where I was) paid dividends because when she called me back, I was at the mechanic’s shop and now they knew I was late in visiting my mom.

My car was fixed, new battery installed and off I drove, thankful that all was ok. I was grateful that I hadn’t broken down in the middle of nowhere.

PART II:

As I drove along for another hour, my battery light suddenly began to flash. I was thinking “Oh man, what’s up with this now?” Oh and don’t think I didn’t curse the Ford Motor company a few times…because I did…

As I drive along the 401 past Brockville towards Prescott, the battery light came on solid. As I turned off the 401 past Prescott, my RPM guage started doing what it had done before, it flat lined. Then within moments, my Speedometer did the same.

I kept driving and I made it, chugging along, to a town called Spencerville, population 1,000. By now it was after 6 pm. I drove through town chortling along and looking for a mechanic shop. I quickly realized that the town closed down tight at 6pm, so I decided to pull into a Drummonds gas bar. As it turns out, this is the Town Hall. There is an LCBO, Beer Store and food market all within the gas bar. It’s Spencerville’s mecca…I swear…

I was really stuck this time. Spencerville is so small that there is no hotel, no bus or train that will take you to Ottawa and my car was clearly out of commission.

I asked the clerk at the desk for use of the phone to once again call my family, letting them know that I might need a ride if I had no other options available. The clerk helped me out by calling a mechanic shop, but it was closed. Then she called her boyfriend to help me out. Thankfully (miracle number two) he was mechanically inclined and according to her was so good that he’d helped fix her GMC Jimmy a few years ago.

Sure enough her boyfriend Rob came with a battery guage in hand and ready to diagnose my car. I know what’s wrong with it… It’s dead, I tell him!

So we popped the hood and tested my battery. The battery seemed ok, but the alternator wasn’t… in fact it was shot…

We tried to get my car going and decided that maybe I could make it back to the Canadian Tire in Prescott. Within 30 seconds I realized this was a bad idea. My car died about 100 yards away.

I walked back to the gas bar and ask to use the phone again, to call my family. The clerk called her boyfriend back to help me and this time he brought the cavalry. He brought his Jimmy, 2 batteries and booster cables and we got my car back to the gas bar.

We boosted my car for a good 30 minutes and then Rob thought he would attach 2 batteries to my car battery in order to give me enough juice and power to get to Ottawa. This was brilliant! …And it worked!

Miracle number two!



Miracles, life and business lessons make St. Patricks Day one of the most memorable yet. - To learn more about this author, visit David Cohen's Website.

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