Demand-led Supply, and Vocation

Saturday, my fiance and I were scouting the country side close to Johannesburg for wedding venues. The area to the west of Johannesburg has now become a very popular "Bell-territory". We impulsively decided to deviate from our set programme to see if we could find some hidden secrets. Ironically, we found why certain secrets should stay hidden.

We followed the signs to an aparantly new venue close to Misty Hills Hotel. As we entered, first impressions were brought by a huge dog lying lazily in front of a badly maintained house, barking at its visitors. "At least security won't be an issue" my fiance remarked with her characteristic sense of humour . Part B to the first impressions was another couple, aparantly also scouting for a suitable place to tie the knot, running past us, quickly jumping into their car and reversing into a badly positioned advertisement board as the hurriedly tried to escape the premises.

A tall and helpfull man, which we later learned was the owner, after greeting us asked if we were getting married and how many people we planned to invite. We replied yes, and approximately 120 people. That's when he introduced us to the main reception area: a small and long room, stretching across two levels, making up nothing more than 65 sqaure meters and with an obvious lack of finesse. That's when he confidently told us that they could fit in 80 people there. His next question was how many of our guest were smokers and children, because the rest of the guests could be fitted outside on a small patch of grass, probably half the size of the reception area where he would fit in another 50 guests. The great thing about that, he motivated, was that smokers and children actually prefer to sit outside. We politely asked for some brochures and then took off in much the same fashion as our predescessors (except, I missed the advertisement board).

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So, in wondering what this well intentioned man did wrong, I came back to this fundamental principle: demand-led supply. Demand-led: make sure there's a need. Supply: don't offer something you don't have. Someone once put it like this: "Vocation lies where your greatest passion meets the world's greatest need".