Thursday, November 11, 2004
Ng: Very tragic in business
By Wilson Ng
Wired Desktop
FACE TO FACE. Managing companies inevitably means meetings, and I hold several every day.
Meetings, if not properly conducted, waste lots of time. But then again, no technology has yet come that is more efficient than face to face meetings in helping groups of two to 40 people understand an issue.
In one of the meetings, I nearly lost my cool when someone again mentioned a word that I think is a very tragic word in business and in life.
ALMOST. And you hear it often. I almost made the sale. I almost won the game. I almost convinced him. I almost made it to the finals. I almost passed the test. I almost won the lottery. I almost made money in the stock market. I made my appointment on time... well, almost.
I finished the project on time... Almost.
The almosts never end. People who almost climbed the mountain, people who almost made it. Everybody, I would guess, has his own individual tale of “almosts.” It seems that not making it is a little bit more acceptable when the word “almost” is added.
Almost, I would think, can also mean you intended to do it, but did not. I almost told her I loved her, would therefore mean you meant to tell her, but never got around to doing it.
Almost. It simply means whatever was your grand plan, you did not do it or succeed in it. In the book of records, however, there is no such thing as an almost win. Just winning or losing. Almost winning, unfortunately, despite the terminology, gets you listed on the side of losing.
We can choose to be kinder to ourselves. But what I am worried about is if our rhetoric of rationalization doesn’t end. Then we will never learn. Then we will look back at our life and say: “I almost... I could have been....” But that really just means you did not make it—and is merely a justification.
It is hard. But maybe we just have to be brutally honest with ourselves. No excuses, just open proof. There is no such thing as almost winning. As they say: “No monument was ever constructed for a person based on what he almost did, only what he accomplished.”
The first step to success, I think, is understanding the whale of a difference between making it, and ALMOST making it.
(web log: www.bizdrivenlife.net)
(November 11, 2004 issue)
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