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Perceiving Victory

Written by: Jim Bouchard

Article Overview: "Perceiving a victory when it is perceived by all is not the highest excellence." Sun Tzu Anyone can see victory when it’s obvious. In business, it’s not always obvious! When you can see victory where everyone else sees defeat, that’s a big win!

Perceiving Victory

"Perceiving a victory when it is perceived by all is not the highest excellence."
Sun Tzu

Anyone can see victory when it’s obvious. In business, it’s not always obvious! When you can see victory where everyone else sees defeat, that’s a big win!

Victory can be a matter of perception. An obvious victory might come when you exploit a boom market. When conditions are difficult you’ve got to find or create your victory when everyone else’s head is in the sand.

During difficult economic times a lot of people do stick their heads in the sand. This is particularly true in business where the mentality can easily shift to a protectionist mindset. “Let’s survive the storm!”

Can you keep your head up and look for new opportunities even in the middle of the storm? Is it a greater risk to try and keep moving forward? Is it really more prudent to stick your head in the sand like the ostrich?

The ostrich might think he’s OK as he can’t see the danger around him, but remember his hind parts are still sticking straight up in the air ready for a proverbial ass-kicking!

Victory can also be a matter of perception as you may have to declare your own victory when everyone else thinks you’re going down. You may have to trumpet smaller victories as you fight to regain ground and prepare for larger wins down the road.

When times get tough there really are only two clear choices:

Quit.

Keep moving.

The only way to victory is to keep moving!

Related Articles
  Creating and Using a Victory Journal
  The Journey to Success - Persistence
  Work Hard and Make It Happen
  Persistence is the Choice of the Successful
  My Way or the Highway: The Power of Perception

Article Tags: big win, boom market, choices, economic times, head in the sand, mentality, middle of the storm, mindset, new opportunities, ostrich, perception, risk, sun tzu, trumpet, victory



Related Forum Posts
Re: Good role models (and a rant on women in today's TV) - [quote="BuzzAroundBooks":zr494s8r]In that case, which shows on tv (if any) do you enjoy watching? And if you had the money are there any good role models on tv you'd ask to endorse your products and services?[/quote:zr494s8r] Heh heh. To tell the truth, I don't watch a lot of "new" TV. I watch a lot of sports, and see the advertisements for the dramas, sitcoms, reality shows, and so on, that way, and so I can tell what they're about, and what kind of people the women portray, without actually having to watch them! What I'd like to see are TV shows that show women pilots, bicyclists, and so on. (I'd really like to increase the profile of bicyclists on city streets, because in the good ol' USA, even though drivers are supposed to share the road with cyclists, 9 out of 10 of em think cyclists are supposed to be on sidewalks. Have some big name actors like Will Smith, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, riding through the streets on bikes urging people to do likewise...might do some good!) I'd like to see astronauts such as Shannon Lucid and Eileen Collins in programs, or the various female Air Force pilots (I just interviewed Donna Kohout, for example, first woman to fly a Nighthawk, for my Winged Victory webzine), etc. etc. The shows I watch are the DVDs of the ones I grew up with as a kid, The Avengers with John Steed and Emma Peel (Emma Peel was and is a role model for me), Banacek, Columbo, etc.! I used to watch Law and Order, too...but it's many spinoffs have never appealed....
You just can't win - a very long story - I recently started a new webzine for women in aviation. My initial title was taken...so I thought about a new title. I wanted something that would say women and aviation at the same time. I came up with You Fly, Girl. (Although I've stated in the past I dont' like women being referred to as girls, since this ezine is kind of aimed at teens...and teens are girls...I decided to go with the title.) I then posted a request for interviews at a webzine frequented by lots of pilots, including women. Including the famous Patty Wagstaff! In factr she responded - on the site, saying that she didn't like the title. She'd worked hard to be taken with respect, and was a woman, not a girl. (She didn't say this in a rude way, I'm just paraphrasing her point.) A couple of the other female pilots there voiced the same concern. So, I decided to change the title. Since the site is still in the "a-borning" stages and isn't listed on search engines yet, it was no problem to change the title. I decided to go for Winged Victory: Women in Aviation. Then, someone gave me the URL for an organization of female fighter pilots (a small and select band of military pilots, obviously). The name of their website? fighterchicks.com Now, to me, I find being addressed as a "chick" to be more offensive than being called a girl, but these women obviously didn't feel that way. So, I emailed the website owner, explaining that I had a new website and was requesting interviews. She emailed me back and said that she had forwarded my message to "the girls." I just had to laugh. (And, on a side note, one of 'em, who was the first woman to fly an F-117 (the stealth fighter) has agreed to do an interview!)


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