Every crisis is an opportunity

It was a lovely Saturday evening in September last year, when at 10pm our ONLY toilet got blocked, triggering the “collateral beauty of a plumbing crisis.” Let’s go through our little drama blow by blow. 

We start our adventure by searching the net for a plumbing company that could help us on Sunday morning. Oh, and we require a plumber with knowledge of macerators, which is a pump-like device connected to the toilet. Three hours later, plumber number 1 arrives, but unfortunately, he has no macerator knowledge. He calls his colleague, plumber number 2, who arrives at 2pm. 

Number 2 quickly establishes that we need a new macerator, which he promises to install on early Monday morning. Nice guy, and since we have to pay him for a minimum of one hour and it doesn’t take that long to give us the news, he kindly takes on some other work we need done, installing a new radiator thermostat.  And yet, we still have no toilet. We have to find creative toilet solutions, which end up being supplied by local cafés, shops and pubs. Thank you!

Monday at noon, a vegetable blender arrives (s.picture). A quick call confirms this is not a macerator. But we learn plumber number 2 will install the real macerator soon.  Two hours later, he installs the new macerator, but it turns out the pipe is blocked.

 Plumber 3 is a “blockage expert.”  He tries his best with a massive industrial hoover to no avail. And, wouldn’t you know it, he can’t use his high-resolution-pipe camera because our pipes have so called “elbow joints.” He reckons it best to lift all the floorboards and tiles. He then asks whether we can get access to the downstairs neighbour to see where the main pipe stack is.

Now, our downstairs neighbour has not been our best friend since my recent Friday evening hammering on an IKEA cupboard. Still, we ask him if we can have a look, and he kindly lets us in. Plumber 3 gets no new insight from the visit, but my wife wonders why one of the walls has water staining. It turns out plumber 2 has installed the thermostat incorrectly and it’s created a leak. 

On the positive side: the downstairs neighbour turns out to be quite friendly and even offers us use of one of his 3 toilets. Back to the flat, we call plumber 2, who in the late evening disconnects the radiator. It’s now Monday near midnight, and we have spent over £1,000 for a toilet that’s still blocked, a disconnected radiator, and a neighbour’s damaged wall. And we’re still bathroom beggars.

 On Tuesday Morning, we make an Executive decision to change plumbing companies. Plumbers 4 and 5 arrive in the afternoon. They’re unsuccessful in unblocking the pipe but come up with a medium-impact solution to rescue the situation, which still entails breaking tiles and somehow laying a new pipe through the kitchen by Wednesday.  

 Thanks to our management agent, we get a call from the REAL Blockage Experts, plumbers 6 and 7, who promise to charge us only if they can indeed unblock the pipe. Wednesday Morning ... with street wisdom and some pretty smart efforts... they unblock the pipe within half an hour. Yippee!

 So, why am I telling this story? You might think, “Well, sh*t happens.” And, yes, it certainly does (if unblocked), but that’s not the point. I tell it for two reasons. Stuff like this doesn’t just happen to you, even though it may seem like it sometimes. We all endure our share of trials and tribulations ... of a plumbing nature and otherwise.

And I tell it because I strongly believe this plumbing crisis taught us an important lesson. Each crisis presents us with opportunities.

Here’s the good that came out of this episode:

1. My relationship with my wife, which has always been good, actually improved as we managed the crisis as a team, enjoying our lovely early breakfasts and / or late dinners in the establishments of our temporary bathroom sponsors.
2. The relationship with our neighbour improved.   
3. We found some really good plumbers, tipped them a bit, and have had super service for other plumbing issues since then. 

It’s seldom the case that our tales of woe don’t contain some silver linings. You just have to be open to seeing them. So, my challenge to you today is this. Whatever crisis you are currently going through or are about to encounter, ask yourself this. What are the golden opportunities in it? Where are the silver linings? How can you use this crisis to your advantage and manage to see it as a blessing in some way?

 Just as thunderstorms brings rainbows, crises beget opportunities. Maybe, just maybe, there will be a bit of collateral beauty ... or even a pot of gold ... that appears in the wake of your next crisis.

 I strongly believe opportunities are almost always there. You just have to look for them.

-Joerg