Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Failure and Success

"The difference between failure and success is time" - P Vermeulen, Jan 2006.

I see it in my daughter, I see it in myself. The predisposition to give up quickly, to not complete something. In my early career days, part of a classification system used was "Completer Finishers" and "Ideas people". I was never a completer-finisher, and whatever money was spent on those consultants just affirmed my lack of self-discipline as phyco-analytically explainable/justifiable.

Today I think that was all a lie. All people have the ability to be completer-finishers, even my daughter and I. And you know what the only difference is? Time. When you feel like giving up, just keep on trying a little longer. I did just this last weekedn. A deadline for work, very high expectations of the results I would be able to achieve. And for months the results eluded me, the process to achieve the results eluded me. And then, on Sunday, the veil was lifted. And it all suddenly made sense.

I started coding formulae and assumptions, and about halfway through, I felt that it was really hard. And I almost quit. But I did not. For the first time in a long time, I persevered, and the answer was given to me.

There is more to do, more problems to solve before I can take the whole answer to our customers, but enlightenment has begun. Of course, after having had this small personal breakthrough, the methodology, and the results, are extremely simple. But with hindsight, everyone has 20/20 vision...

No comments: