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Never Look Back! Never Look Back?

Guest post by: Tom Peters

Article Overview: I will not tell you what got me thinking about this. And a lot of other data will be suppressed as well ...

Never Look Back! Never Look Back?

I will not tell you what got me thinking about this. And a lot of other data will be suppressed as well ... It seems to me, as I look at my career over the last 40 years and reflect on a lifetime of biography reading, that a key to success-and maybe pretty high on the list-is an ability to more or less "never look back." While reflection is imperative, too much reflection is paralyzing. In my case I know that I err, by a sizeable margin, on the "too little" end of the spectrum.

The plus is a strong action bias-holiest of holies per me.

The negative is upon occasion making the same mistake twice (little reflection after the 1st cock-up); and a de facto willingness to tolerate collateral damage.

It is the latter that's bugging me at the moment-probably triggered by the agonies of a Richter 8.0 sinus infection, not amenable to the strongest of painkillers. That is, there is a lot of collateral damage along the way that at the moment feels pretty unacceptable.

If I had to do it all over again ...

If I had to do it all over again, I think I'd pay more attention-maybe even a lot more-to that collateral damage. The result thereof is totally unpredictable-that is, there are so so many parallel universes.

But the "If I had ..." is mostly a silly exercise. If I'd been a lot more reflective then I wouldn't be who I am, and I wouldn't be writing this post.

I simply conclude that it is probably true that success, which invariably requires bulldozing skills, requires the "ability" to more or less "never look back"-and the costs can run pretty damned high.

Comments?

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Article Tags: bias, cock, collateral damage, holiest of holies, lifetime, mistake, painkillers, parallel universes, reflection, richter, silly exercise, sinus infection, spectrum, willingness



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