Yosemite, Transformation, and What to do When You Lose Your Laptop on a Train

On Friday, March 26th, 15 women entrepreneurs and creative professionals embarked on a journey to Yosemite National Park to get some fresh air, be inspired, and to have whatever was “meant” to happen so that they might go forward in business and in life with a renewed energy and focused direction.

I’m not sure if that actually happened for everyone involved, but I do know *it* happened for me.

The day itself was an adventure complete with trains, buses, and hiking to waterfalls. Nature’s beauty stunned us all into a state of awe.  And, as much as I thought I was going to solve the problems of the world (or at least a few that keep popping up in my business) I realized quickly that no such thoughts would be making their way from my  gray matter to action on this trip to the great outdoors.

I was looking forward to putting myself in an environment where email is spotty, laptops can not be plugged in, and where anyone talking on the phone is glared at.  So, why did I feel the need to lug my laptop and business backpack on this day-long trip?

My heavy, laptop-loaded, backpack was a pain in the butt, having to be shoved in overhead compartments, or under the seat in front of me, and checked in at the lodge, rinse and repeat on the way home.

I didn’t know at the time, but in a few short hours after cursing the inconvenience I caused myself, I was about to find out that me and my laptop were going to have a parting of the ways and I was about to make a sincere promise to never again be so connected to anything.

After a long day, we arrived at our final destination, the Emeryville Amtrak station. As we departed the train, I said my good byes, gave a rah-rah thanks for everyone’s participation, then turned and realized that I left my laptop on the train, the same train that had already left the station.

Of course I chased the train, made frantic calls, harassed every low level worker I could access through the plexi-glass windows, and left empty handed with minimal hope that my baby would return to me.

I didn’t intend to lose my business lifeline on this trip, but the circumstances of a mad flurry-brainstorm session that exploded in the last hour of our train ride home, left me backpack-less and dumbfounded as to how I could have done such a thing!

Since it is not what happens to us, but how we handle it, I focused on the “positive” for the next hour as my car full of silent passengers crossed the bridge back into the city. I quickly accepted that I was going to enter eht weekend computer-less, or computer-free, depending on your perspective and I desperately needed to find meaning in the situation fast.

The meaning I found actually came about as quickly as the realization that I left my bag behind.

You see, the brainstorm session I was deeply engaged in prior to my loss had to do with the notion of letting go of everything in our business that was not working.

We talked about tossing really big parts of our business including parts of our workshop, book, and website, that regardless of how long it took us or how much time, money, and energy we already invested. The brainstorm brought us all the way to the point of the possibility of a business re-branding.  So exciting and so daunting all at once!

Some of the seemingly important parts (like my favorite backpack, actual laptop, and binders of notes from past meetings) may be gone, but the best parts, my data and pictures, were salvageable. The same is true for our business. Some things that seemed really important a year ago, are not, and those we will happily leave behind on the proverbial business train.

As a side note, I would like to give a special thanks to the women in my car who didn’t take it personally when my head spun in a circle and refused to let them stop at In & Out Burger on the way home. Mary Hickey, Carlie Hanson, Gail Foland and Denise Myers – you are all troopers. Thanks for being there for me at a time when I should have been locked in a padded room.

If you ever find yourself laptop-less and wondering what horrible things might come as a result, here is what I did to protect myself, recover my data, and ensure that if this happens again in the future, I will be ok.

1. Immediately changed all of my passwords, and looked up the “to-do’s” for laptop loss.

2. Signed up for LifeLock to protect me from future identity theft.

3. Contacted Experian who then contacted the other two credit bureaus, Equifax, and TransUnion. It was very nice to only have to contact one. They put a Fraud Alert on my account for 90 days.

4. Gave myself a HUGE pat on the back for using 3 tools:

- Carbonite to restore all of my important files, pictures and music

- Evernote for being my online document organizational tool that captures my most important conversations, documents, and brain dumps

- MobileMe to keep my mail, contacts, and calendar in tact

5. Finally, I purchased LoJack for Laptops to install on my new MacBook Pro.

I’m not always the poster child for having her sh*t together, but in light of this experience, I’m pretty proud to have had some measures for recovery in place.

My fingers are crossed that this will be the last article I write about losing my laptop. Now losing my cell phone . . . I can’t promise I won’t do that again.