It is funny growing up because there are things your mom will teach you that you will absolutely forget about until one day it hits like a ton of rocks. It will get you at the oddest of times and in the oddest of places and yes, it will bring a smile to your face.
Now as a kid, we all shrugged it off because it was our mom, or dad, talking a bunch of nonsense. “Don’t do this; don’t do that,” we heard that all the time. That is what parents do. Until you become their age and realize they were on to something. Just as your grandparents told them, as they told you, as you tell your kids and on and on.
Recently, I had a friend reach out about doing some work together and invited me to lunch. Everything was great and we agreed to partner together and at the end, he was going to buy my lunch. “Go ahead and grab a dessert, too.” I looked at him and said, “No, but thank you.” He replied, “I have known you for a long time and you are turning down dessert?” Then suddenly, my mom’s voice from a long time ago spoke to me and said, “And remember this. When someone is buying your meal, even if they say it is okay, turn it down. Never get dessert when someone is paying for your meal.”
I politely turned it down and he said okay. I am telling you that the voice that day in my ear and those words, I had not thought about in decades. Decades. I would never turn down dessert, that is a correct statement, but when the echoes of your mom speak not only to your brain and to your heart, you do turn it down.
As I have written before, whether we like it or not, we morph into the ones that mold us; the ones that teach us; the ones that love us. From a certain walk or gait, to the way we stand, it is all part of our DNA. There were things as a kid that my mom did that drove me crazy. I now do the exact same things and for that, I thank God every day.
Just don’t order the dessert.