About the
Unpolished Series

The Unpolished article series is a collection of words, thoughts, and musings from the Threads Worldwide founders.

Expectations – Yet Another Direct Sales Golden Nugget

We’ve been getting bids on projects for our house. I’ll black out when I hear a number only to see my husband grinning ear-to-ear obviously pleased with the number.

When my doctor told me to start pushing with the birth of my second kiddo, I got prepared for 2.5 hours of hard work. A short 10 minutes later sweet-baby-boy wiggled on my chest. I hardly realized what happened and was so relieved (..and full of joy and love of course)!

These experiences, and the different reactions, were based on our expectations going in.

I hypothesize that a Fair Trade Partner’s evaluation of her business’ success or failure is based solely on her expectations: She is ecstatic about an average Showcase because she was expecting it to be cancelled. She is disappointed by a $1000+ Showcase because she was expecting twice as much.

It’s a lesson we can’t learn too often:

What are my expectations?

What are they based on?

What can I do NOW to set up the best situation to fulfill on those expectations?

Maybe instead of saying ‘manage your expectations’ what we should say is ‘tune into your expectations’. It is a good indicator of how you will reflect on any experience later.