Sneaking Bullets through Airport Security

On Tuesday, I took my parents to the airport.

As we drove up, we joked about mom getting stopped by airport security. We had a good laugh. But little did we know how prescient our joking was: my mom was about to have an encounter with federal security agents.

You see, I had driven to my parents’ house to pick them up. As I waited for them to finish packing, I stood at the kitchen island. I noticed a couple boxes of old bullets on the counter.

Strange, I thought.

I picked up one of the boxes.

Unfortunately, the boxes were so old that the flaps didn’t stay closed any more. So even with a just a slight tilt, all the bullets came tumbling out.

Bullets have a way of scattering quickly when they collide with granite countertops and hardwood floors.

It Was a Mess…

And not the best timing either. My parents were in a hurry to get out the door.

Anyway, I gathered up all the bullets I could find, put them back in the box, and apologized to my dad. (Plus, I politely recommended he tape the boxes shut.)

I thought that was the end of the story. But, in fact, it was just the beginning.

I did not know it at the time, but my mom’s purse had been lying on the floor at my feet. And a few stray bullets had slipped inside.

So when my mom’s purse was passing through the x-ray machine, federal agents quickly pulled her aside for questioning. They detained her for more than an hour as they did the routine background check, interrogation, etc.

Thankfully, my parents came out clean. Plus, they had arrived early enough that they were still able to catch their flight — although they were a bit angry and frustrated with the whole situation.

Here’s the lesson:

Always Plan for the Unexpected!

Who could have ever imagined that such a sequence of events would play out like they did?

Not me.

And I guess that’s the point. In business — as in life — you need to always plan for the unexpected.

• What if you lose an anchor account?
• What if your market is hard-hit by the recession?
• What if an employee (or two, or three) unexpectedly quits?
• What if a vendor you rely on goes bankrupt?
• What if your merchant account gets shut down?

And so forth.

Always be anticipating what could go wrong in your business and plan accordingly.

You just never know when “bullets” may appear out of nowhere to try to shoot your business down.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Speaking of bullets, I’ll be adding a new lesson about how to write bullets to Copywriting Code in the next week or two. Become a member now to get access to this new lesson — plus nearly 20 in-depth copywriting lessons that are already available.