Persistence from a final perspective – Rule Number One

Naked Leader Week – 192 (w/c Monday 5 February 2007)

Persistence from a final perspective – Rule Number One

With thanks to Peter Burke

Last week’s action on persistence was around “hope,” and how it keeps us going – due to a technical error our end many of you received it, many times. Just under 70 of you wrote to tell us so – thank you.

I sent out an apology, and could never have predicted what happened next – hundreds of you replied!

So, I have now received more e-mails for an apology than for any NL weeks!

And most of you thought that sending out multiple copies – on the subject of persistence – was done deliberately! Indeed, some of you who send this on to other people did so, an equal number of times to the number of copies you received (which may have been up to nine, by the way!).

It gets better

For some reason some people only received one copy, as normal…

And over 100 of you, who received just the one copy, replied to my apology, not just to say you had only received one copy, no – you wrote asking why you had not received more!

So, whatever you received, however many times and when, I conclude this mini – series on persistence with a brilliant analogy from the world of shipping.

There are many different collision manuals, all with scores – sometimes hundreds – of rules on action to avoid a collision, including such gems as:

A vessel which, by any of these Rules, is required not to impede the

passage or safe passage of another vessel shall, when required by the

circumstances of the case, take early action to allow sufficient sea room

for the safe passage of the other vessel. [If you need to get out of the

way, get out of the way]

And the quite brilliant:

A vessel, the passage of which is not to be impeded remains fully obliged to comply with the Rules of this part when the two vessels are approaching one another so as to involve risk of collision. [If someone else should have got out of the way you’re still not allowed to have a collision]

As Peter writes – “It is a wonder there aren’t more accidents whilst navigators are ploughing through the regulations!”

And all of these many rules, regulations and guidelines are often, in many interpretations, started with Rule Number One:

Rule Number One: You shall not have a collision

So, think about what success means to you – for yourself, for someone whose life you touch, for your career, for your team, for your organisation or for your world.

I suppose rule number 74; paragraph 2 on success might read:

In your life you will be given many many pieces of advice from other people on what to do to succeed – a lot of this advice will be conflicting, much will be difficult to understands, and many of the people will certainly never have applied the same advice to themselves (If someone else is successful, that still means you can be successful as well).

 And rule number 146, sub-section 4 could cover failure:

Failure is a seven letter word, and a noun, which means you can give it whatever meaning you wish, as that’s what we do with nouns. You can choose to be worried, and lose sleep over a seven letter word, or not, in which case use a crayon to colour in the “a” and the “e.” (If someone else defines failure, you do not have to define it in the same way).

And all of these of course start with Rule Number One – for whatever success means, and is, to you:

Rule Number One: You shall succeed (you shall not fail)

This is sent just the once this week, however my love, thanks and best wishes are sent many, many times

David

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