Have you ever failed at something because you didn’t take the time to prepare? Listen as Jr shares a story of how he was unprepared.
Around the year 2,000, a song came out by the group Mercy Me entitled “I Can Only Imagine”. It was a great, powerful song and I decided I wanted to sing it. I attended a church of about 3,000 people and I sang on the worship team almost every week so I was very comfortable on stage in front of a crowd. I asked the worship minister if I could do the song and he said “Yeah, no problem. I’ll put you on the schedule.” The Sunday came for me to sing; the band started to play the introduction, and they sounded really good, they nailed it. I looked out at the crowd and I could see people nodding their heads and smiling. I knew they were anticipating the song, they loved it. I felt good, this is going to be great!
And I missed my cue. Then I started to sing the wrong words, I was singing the second verse instead of the first. I wasn’t even singing the right tune at times. I was making a disaster out of this song. There was a girl in the front row, she was singing the right words and I started taking my cues from her to get back on track.
The band was prepared, but I wasn’t. I had the opportunity to do something amazing. I had the opportunity to share some incredible words and music, but I failed because I wasn’t prepared.
So whether you’re coaching, teaching, making a presentation, or maybe making a sales call, take the extra time to be prepared. Don’t overbook yourself. Go through the process, say it out loud, know your material, be prepared. One your presentation will be better. Two you’ll get better results and three you enjoy the process a lot more if you take the extra time to be prepared.