Some colleagues become friends. Every now and again something happens that reminds you how lucky you are that they did.
This morning was one of those.
The thing I kept putting off
A mate from work tells me to do something I've been putting off for years.
I make the usual excuses. You know the ones. Not now, not that important, I'll get round to it. He isn't interested in any of them.
Then he makes an offer he doesn't need to make. He says he'll pay for it, so I've got no reason left not to. I say no. He ignores that too.
So I do the thing.
When I first posted about this, I didn't say what it was. It felt like the point was the friendship. But I'm happy to tell you now, because it might nudge someone else.
It was signing up to PRS for Music, for all of my music.
Years of music, never collected
If you don't make music, PRS is the organisation that collects royalties for songwriters when their music gets played or streamed, and pays them out. If you're not a member, the money for your songs can sit there uncollected.
I've been making music for years. Some of it is out on streaming services under the name Dust and Data. And for all that time, I'd never got round to joining. Every play, every stream, and I'd never collected the royalties that might have been owed.
It's such an easy thing to do. That's partly why I kept not doing it. Easy things don't feel urgent, so they slide to next week, then next month, then next year.
My mate saw that it mattered to me. He saw that I was never going to sort it on my own. So he paid for my membership to make sure I actually did it.
Even the Done Beats Perfect guy
There's an irony here that isn't lost on me. I wrote a book called Done Beats Perfect. I've spent years telling people to stop waiting for the perfect moment and just do the thing.
And I still needed someone to hold me to it.
Most of us know what to do. We all have a list of jobs that would make a real difference and take less than an hour. What we're short of is someone who sees that something matters to us and won't let us keep dodging it. Someone who then goes further than we ever asked.
He started as a colleague. Somewhere along the way he became a mate. I'm grateful for both.
Thanks, mate.
