Failure? Success? Why! How!

People create obstacles between themselves and their goals.

Then, they pretend that the problems are not problems because they

• They have the solution to the problem

• They can solve the problem

Then, they work on the solution to the problem that they themselves have created.

This time wasting technique--this impediment--is a self-created, self-perpetuating, self-defeating process.

The most important part of the process of failure is the energy expended, the time wasted, the techniques employed, in solving the problem.  The process:

• Research
• Reading
• Self-Help Books
• Writing a Journal
• Watching programmes about the problem
• Talking to People in Support Groups who serve as enablers
• Irritating the people around them (who have problems of their own) causing people to avoid them thus creating the self-fulfilling prophesy.

I can also add the energy expended and the time wasted defending the above self-defeating behaviour.

If this problem is not personal but institutional, the problem may be external, but the process of failure is the same--the elaborate process that avoids dealing with the problem and perpetuates it from there.

Let's define the problem.

Let's involve as many departments as we can to avoid solving the problem.

Let's explore as many aspects of the problem as we can pretend really do exist.

(The result of 3 & 4)

1. Sales
2. Marketing
3. R&D
4. Production
5. QC
6. Engineering
7. Finance
8. Advertising
9. HR
10. Accounting
11. Shipping
12. Receiving
13. The Outside Consultant & of course
14. Carl the Pretzel Man

Right now we are witnessing the EuroCrats embracing this process.

Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Einstein, a scientist, understood the empirical method of analysis.

You do something (the experiment) and document the results.
You repeat the experiment. If you duplicate the results, you form the conclusion.

To create change, you either change the variable (V) or you change the constant (K).

Let's use the metaphor of baking a cake.

If you have only medium eggs, you can change the amount of flour using one egg to make the batter work.

If you need a bigger cake and you can't change the size of the eggs, you increase the number of eggs from one to two.  If you fail to create a cake, you keep the number of eggs (2) constant (K) and adjust the amount of flour.

Why use this metaphor?

When I was a youngster, I was at my girlfriend's house. Her sister was trying to bake a cake. She failed.  Her Mom encouraged her not to give up. To keep trying.  She tried again.  She failed.  Her Mom encouraged her not to give up. To keep trying.

I went over to help.  I read the recipe.

A recipe has three parts:

Ingredients
Quantities
Process

"Did you separate the eggs?"
"What's that?"

I showed her how to separate the eggs, beat the yolks, beat the whites, add the yolks, fold in the whites.

She baked the cake.  Success!

Ingredients?  Yes!
Quantity?  Yes!
Encouragement? Yes!

The missing element?  The Process!

All our failures: Personal, Institutional, Governmental do not routinely, but ultimately, arise from a failure in the process.

When Congress, European Leaders, and Business Leaders--the leaders who fail, not the leaders who succeed--recognise that there must be a change in the process, they will begin to succeed.

Warmest regards,

Slim

slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright (c) 2013  Slim Fairview
All Rights Reserved.

If anything herein is helpful, please do not hesitate to send me a really tricked out MacPro and to tuck a few dollars into the envelope along with the thank you note.  Thank you. Slim