By Jonathan Winnegrad, ABO-AC, NCLE-AC

It has been said that fear is a liar and a thief. Often fear can control our lives and limit us in our lives personally and professionally. Besides my irrational fears of caterpillars (don’t tell anyone please) and not getting enough protein in, as an optician I have at times had several fears that limited my growth as an optician. I hope to share those with the desire that I may help pay others' stupid taxes by sharing what I learned from my folly.

Drill Mount Repair: I love rimless glasses, but they can be so intimidating. There is nothing like a customer angry because their $1200 pair of Silhouettes fell apart right after purchase. Equally unpleasant is not being able to repair eyeglasses from out of town in an emergency pinch because you are afraid that you will break them. When I went to a workshop on rimless repair years ago, it was the best business builder. People from all over the city started to send their rimless repair to me. It would cost me a gasket (that costs a nickel for a dozen) to gain a new patient and often their family.

Expensive Glasses: You would think that I was a student of Karl Marx’ Manifesto by the way I handled the cost of eyeglasses when I first started out. How can we charge so much money for glasses that you can get at a big box store for under a hundred dollars? Did they really expect me to have the courage to ask somebody to drop a nice car payment on eyeglasses? Once again, this fear was overcome by education. Often you get what you pay for. When you take the time to become educated on the “why” behind the price it all falls into place. It is not salesmanship but con artistry to sell expensive glasses if you do not believe in the value. When I invested time in understanding the benefit of certain materials, ergonomics, designs, and technology, it became very easy to sell all sorts of eyewear.

Saying Yes and Saying No: Sometimes I have limited myself by being afraid to say yes. Yes, I can come up with an unorthodox solution to your eyewear need, yes, I can fix those eyeglasses, yes to that dream opportunity. I had to learn to separate emotion from questions that should be answered rationally. Equally scary was saying no. No, you cannot treat me like that, no we do not sell that sort of eyewear here, no we do not take your insurance. While it is my firm belief that generally speaking, we can say yes more than we do sometimes the answer is no. I had to overcome my fear of saying no.

There you have it. Hopefully, my sharing of fears that I have battled, and the resolution will help you to overcome them as well as limit your need of serotonin inhibitors.