File this under: Things Are Not Always What They Seem

About this time last week I was highly annoyed at three people who had not responded to emails.

Case #1 – I had stuck my neck out to ask someone who owes me money to, you know, acknowledge that fact and get going paying me back. 72 hours had passed and…*crickets*

Case #2 – I had sent a message asking someone to help with fixing something – kind of out of respect to allow this person right of first refusal even though I had a backup plan. Said backup plan being necessary because this person’s assistance was not a given and he/she has been oh…let’s just say rather…*unpredictable* in recent weeks. 96 hours had passed and…*crickets*

Case #3 – In response to a somewhat urgent text message request for information I had spent some time putting together some information for someone and sent it out with some follow up questions. About 85% of the time this person is quick to respond or acknowledge message received. But 15% of the time…you just don’t know. 72 hours later……*crickets*

Yeah, I was pretty irritated.

Turns out that my first read on the situations that resulted in the annoyance was a tad off.

Case #1 – responded on Friday, agreed to the amount and promised payment in 30 days (we’ll see, but I’ve found that acknowledgement is half the battle so it will happen. In 60 days :-))

Case #2 – responded Monday – by which time I had put the backup plan in place – but – was then offered assistance above and beyond expectations quite graciously. Which I accepted. Still don’t know why the delay in response, but obviously my initial apprehension about this person’s willingness to help was utterly wrong.

Case #3 – Friday morning I notice that there is a “draft” message sitting in my Yahoo account. Huh? What? Oh….hah…and there’s the message I prepared Monday night with the file attachment and questions and….that I somehow misfired and saved to draft vs actually SENDING – no wonder I hadn’t received a response…whoopsie!!

The moral of the story? Always be willing to ask for help and communicate your needs – it may take a little time, but usually you will get what you need. Oh, and hit SEND ;->