One night I was pondering the question about how to take my business and financial situation to the next level. I felt inspired to write a letter to my sub conscious since it seemed like it was my sub conscious mind that was blocking me from rising to a higher level of success. I explained my reasons for my vision as well as for wanting to get to the core issues, rather than just getting a slight bump. I sincerely wanted to know what was holding me back and how to get through it.
That night I had an interesting dream. I dreamt that a friend that I hadn’t seen since High School had come to visit with his father. We were going to go out to eat at an expensive restaurant. I believe it was Benihana’s. For some reason, they went ahead and had dinner first because I had to take care of some things. After they returned, I went by myself to this expensive restaurant. I only ordered a small amount and the total came to $40. I thought it seemed crazy that it was so expensive for such a small amount. In addition, I had to prepay for the meal. So, I paid for it and with my receipt in hand, I approached a man who sat people at their tables and made sure that the food was delivered.
To my surprise, this man refused to provide me with the food that I had paid for. I asked him why and he said something about it being a small amount. I told him that I thought it was actually expensive for what I had ordered. I also showed him my receipt that I had already paid for it. He said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”
I started to get angry at that point. I had paid for the food. I had the receipt and there was no reason why I shouldn’t get the food that I had paid for. I explained to him that it shouldn’t matter what the price was. I should get what I had paid for. After refusing me again, I yelled, “I want to speak to your manager. Where is he?”
He said, “Oh, Mr. Fancy Pants is up there” and he pointed to a little booth, that looked like a balcony. It was a section of the restaurant where you could look out and see everything going on in the restaurant. As I looked up there, I saw an old fat bald guy with a cigar in his mouth. He looked mean and if there ever was even an ounce of compassion in that man, from the looks of it, it would have been drained out decades previously. He reminded me of a professional poker player who was both willing and ready to drain me of every last penny in my pockets. On top of that, he was in a meeting with 2 other men. It looked like a very important meeting; the kind that you would definitely not want to interrupt. It looked serious!
Despite the seemingly bleak prospects of getting through to this man and the poor timing, I marched myself up there and started shouting at him. Waiving my receipt in the air, I demanded the food that I had paid for. He looked at me with a look of disgust and a gruff voice, “Excuse me, can’t you see that I am in a meeting right now?” Again, I repeated the fact that I had paid for the food, but was being refused the food I had paid for. At this point, this old mean man started to ignore me. He pretended that I wasn’t even there and kept on speaking to these 2 men that he was in the meeting with.
As I started to get angrier about the situation, I decided to take things up a notch and I wiggled my way into the booth and squished myself right in between the 2 men he was talking to. Since those 2 men were sitting side by side, it was a little awkward because I was practically sitting on their laps. Staring straight into Mr. Fancy Pants eyes, I again demanded the food I had paid for.
It started to become obvious that I was starting to annoy everyone at the table. The 2 men whose laps I was sitting on did not seem to appreciate it very much, but since they were trying to appease the boss, they didn’t say much.
However, I could tell that I was starting to get through to Mr. Fancy Pants. He was starting to get flustered and angrier at my insistence and was no longer able to ignore me as I was pretty much in his face at that point.
Again, I demanded the food that I had paid for. When I mentioned the $40, he was shocked and appalled and said, “Forty Dollars? That’s nothing. Most people spend $150 when they come here.” As I was about to go into my well rehearsed line of “Well, it shouldn’t matter how much was paid, I should get what I paid for”, this old mean man gets up and storms out of the room.
I was left at the table with the 2 other men. At this point the original man who had refused me the food in the first place walked up to the table and said, “You know, you really upset Mr. Fancy Pants. He actually is not the real owner of this restaurant. He just runs it. The real owner hardly ever comes here, but out of all the days you picked to come in here and rant, you picked the day when he came. He is here now and that’s why you upset Mr Fancy Pants so much. The real Mr. Fancy Pants is up there”, as he pointed to a door at the top of some steps.
At this point, I was getting furious, and without one bit of hesitation, I started marching up those steps, throwing the door open, determined to get to the bottom of this issue and yelling at the top of my lungs, “Hey Mr. Fancy Pants, I did not get served!”
At this point, the dream world leaked into this world and I woke myself up because of my shouting. While it was crystal clear in my dream that I was shouting the phrase, “Hey Mr. Fancy Pants, I did not get served,” my wife woke up and asked if I was okay and then I started to explain how I was really upset with Mr. Fancy Pants. She laughed…. Then I asked her what I was actually saying and it was something like, “Rahhhhhr, bluh, bluh”
At the point of waking up, I also immediately became aware of the meaning behind the dream. As the person who was not getting the value of the service I had paid for, I was able to feel and experience what it was like to be on the receiving end of the person who was “not receiving”.
I related it to my business and how apathy, procrastination & not being focused have gotten in the way of delivering the best value in a timely way to each of my clients. It doesn’t matter the amount that was paid nor whether my interest level in the project is great or small. I have a duty to provide that value that the client paid for in the best possible way and in a timely manner.
And then it hit me! I was the real Mr. Fancy Pants. I was the one that this message was for and my subconscious delivered it in a profound way that helped me to understand that “If I want to have greater financial freedom, I need to become better at managing and appreciating each and every project that I have been entrusted with, regardless of what I think about its importance.”
I sincerely hope that we each can look at what we have been given and then fulfill it in the way that is the best. There are always some tasks that we enjoy more than others. Learning to love the tasks that are the least loveable is a powerful way to become better prepared to take on the greater ones!
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In the Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace Wattles, it states:
“YOU must use your thought as directed in previous chapters and begin to do what you can do where you are; and you must do ALL that you can do where you are.
You can advance only by being larger than your present place; and no man is larger than his present place who leaves undone any of the work pertaining to that place.
The world is advanced only by those who more than fill their present places.
If no man quite filled his present place, you can see that there must be a going backward in everything. Those who do not quite fill their present places are dead weight upon society, government, commerce, and industry; they must be carried along by others at a great expense. The progress of the world is retarded only by those who do not fill the places they are holding; they belong to a former age and a lower stage or plane of life, and their tendency is toward degeneration. No society could advance if every man was smaller than his place; social evolution is guided by the law of physical and mental evolution.
