There’s a famous quote that goes “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals” {Henry David Thoreau}.

Not that I had this quote in mind back in those early days when we were launching Dello Mano. With product development just finished we received  a call from the city’s major newspaper, the Courier Mail, informing us that they were intending to run a story about our fledgling Brownie business – Dello Mano. Our joy was overwhelming, we celebrated hardly believing that we could engender such support for what was a totally new brownie and gift concept. All the while not thinking for a moment they’d act so quickly and call back almost immediately to advise that a photographer would be dispatched the very next day!

To be honest at that time we had no official Dello Mano sales or business and we’d only just started making our brownies in slightly bigger than home size batches at a local commercial kitchen. I’ll go as far as to admit that we were in fact still buying the ingredients from the local supermarket.

So you can imagine when we got the reporter’s call, we went into a complete fluster. To meet the schedule, Bien and I found ourselves with the need to simultaneously pick up our two primary school aged children and buy ingredients for our much coveted “brownie photo shoot”. We split our tasks. He went to the school and I went to buy the ingredients. We agreed there was so little time, no time to park and that instead he’d pass by the front of the shopping centre and I’d leap into the car with the groceries.

I came out of the shopping centre and waited in the scorching January heat, for my “drive by” pick up. Looking back to the centre door as I stood there patiently, I saw an elderly lady probably mid 70’s pushing a huge trolley of groceries and looking worried. Something was wron . I looked back toward the hot asphalt of the road and told myself to remain focussed, this was a big moment and I really needed to bake brownies. This after all was our big start.

I tried to ignore the energy but could feel her immobilised body behind me. Turning I could see her face still carrying a worried look. I tried hard to just focus on our big moment but could no longer resist and had to ask what was wrong. She explained that she’d lost her car! She had parked and in the heat of the hot afternoon sun had been so quick to get into the supermarket that she now found herself with a lost car. We’ve all done it at some point  but maybe not at the womans age , with full trolley of groceries and a hot blistering Brisbane sun to contend with. I fought off my selfish desire to continue on my way with our dream  – instead stopping to ask her where she’d parked – front side or back of the shopping centre. Worse still, I was to learn that she had no idea.

I looked at the full car park, glanced remorsefully at my trolley of brownie making goodies, pushed it to the side and offered to go look for her car. The problem compounded when she couldnt remember her registration plate and could provide only information that it was  a white station wagon with a number plate of which she could only remember one letter.

I ran down many aisles of the car park that afternoon. Aching to find the car but all the while kept thinking about our brownies that still needed to go in the oven. It was our big break after all. I found the car and ran back to share the news. While trying to explain the car’s position, the woman went quiet with confusion. I took a deep breath, pushed aside any thoughts of our brownie dream and offered to take her to her car. Pushing her trolley to the car spot, it soon occurred to me that since I had come that far,  that I may as well unpack the groceries into her car.

She walked to the side of car and looked back to thank me. Stopping, she searched for the perfect words, “I want to thank you so much, you deserve, now how does that saying go?” She paused, deep in thought and determination, then spoke once more with a vigour enthusiasm, “I know: you deserve brownie points”.

I stopped in my tracks. Incredible, just incredible words. Walking back to my parked trolley, I was astounded. Not really a common phrase for a woman of her age, I thought and yet she, in some mysterious way, affirmed the dream. A sign to carry on with the brownie dream whilst remembering the dream is the journey as well as the destination. There will be hurdles but a willingness to learn and continued belief despite the obstacles will, in the end, ensure the dream prevails.