Hindsight and Regrets!

I was leaning on against a cold stainless steel table...surveying my team's success...

My end of the factory was "up and running" ahead of time!

A $30million factory expansion...

I was responsible for more than half of that cost...and it was sitting idle...NO PRODUCTION!

Not because our end of the process was broke...but because everything that fed it was!

We were ready as requested...they were not!

It was a great feeling...

The team was "out and about" looking for potential problems...and making things even better!

I thought...by the time we get hit with the "tidal wave" we'll have everything "shaken-down" and it'll work like a finely tuned watch!

What a great position to be in!!!!!

Then...echoes from a long corridor brought me back to the moment..."HEY THERE...I got something to tell you..."

"You are not spending much time in your office..."

"I know that!" I shouted back...

I turned to see him...walking like a stately "professor."

"You should be proud of this accomplishment...the company thought this end of the factory would be the bottleneck!  They actually planned an extra month as your target because they thought this cutting edge stuff wouldn't fly the first time!"

Do you mean that they added a month to my deadline...or they didn't expect it for a month from the deadline they gave me?

"The latter!  Do you think that they would let you know that you had breathing room?  Don't be stupid!" 

Whew...I was just sitting here reveling in this accomplishment...and you almost rained on my parade!

"Reveling?"

"No you weren't!"

He saw right through me!

The truth was...I was thinking about what we accomplished...but not in the context of success...but as a opiate!  I was looking to kill the pain of my reality!  I told myself, "Look at what you accomplished...stop feeling sorry for yourself!"

I do not know how he saw that from that distance...but he did!

"Regrets?"

"Hindsight is nearly always perfect"

"A good leader always has regrets and perfect hindsight!" 

"It can be a depressing reality!"

"I expected to find you here...thinking about what you could have done better..."

"Do you know that your desk has enough dust on it that I wrote a note to you in it?"

"You should read the note...it is important!" he laughed

I guess that I have been remiss on my office duties!

"No...the cleaning people have been...your office is always spotless...they should be stepping up to help keep it that way!"

It is a funny thing about hindsight and regrets...

"Where's your team?  You guys hang pretty tight!  I can ususally find you by looking for the crowd and your party!"

"They are out shaking-down the factory for the ump-teenth time...looking for stuff that they may have missed and making things even better..."

"AND your here so that you do not get in their way...right?"

"I guess so..."

"Sounds like the team is out there taking care of hindsight and regrets...doesn't it?"

I laughed..."I guess so!"
"So what is the funny thing about hindsight and regets?" I asked, "Look at you...the epitomy of success...your own business...more work than you can shake a stick at...world recognition...books...speaking engagements...you call the shots...you are there my friend...me...I am here!"

"Look at me...I worry more about the success of my efforts, than me...and look at what I get!  Most of the time...never even a thank-you!  You have your PhD...don't tell me about regrets...you did everything perfect!  I feel like my world is a series of mistakes and compromises..."

"What stands before you is almost 70 years in the making...but has only existed for the last few years!"

My PhD?  I got that after I was 60!...after I had the time to formalize what I had learned in the past years...I couldn't have done that any sooner...my hindsight told me that...and it told me when I was ready!

"10 years ago I was nothing...today...I still am nothing..."

"You may think that I have always been this way, because this is the only way that you have seen me."

"I have a ton of regrets...and excellent hindsight..."  "Why? it is because of "the almost 70 years"...not because what I am today!"

"People make the mistake of thinking that this world is linear...a series of events and decisions...leading to conclusions..."

"Do you realize how often I hear...or have said myself..."If I had only"...?"

"That is regret brought about by hindsight..."

"There was a reason that I came out here to find you...ahhhh...it must not have mattered...let's go on"

"There are things I regret...like being away from home when the Mrs left...and not telling her that I loved her one more time..."

"I regret the last 2 hours that I spent with her...holding her tight...as I waited for the coronor...when I found her alone on the floor..."

"I regret not moving to the US when I was young and avoiding that war!"

"I regret not fighting harder in the war..."

"I regret every shot I took in the war..."

"I regret not working harder in school...and getting my PhD earlier..."

"At any moment...I can regret any event and decision in my life...but that is not leadership!"

"But you know...those events brought me here and has given me an opportunity to be here with you!"

"One slight variation in the events of my life...would have me somewhere else or not here at all!"

"It is a miracle!"

"Less talk about a less miraculous thing..."

"Leadership!"

"Leadership does two things...it gets to its goal and then it looks backward and repairs the regret!"

"...if a leader is feeling regret...then they have missed a big part of their job..."

"Leadership is not linear...it is global and simultaneously takes care of the past...the present and the future!"

"We can treat regret and hindsight one of two ways..."

"Most people use it as an excuse for laziness..."

"I wish I would have...or...things would be much different if...or...it is too late to...!"

"You taught me this one...and I am going to use it on you...How do you know if your mission is complete?"

"I know...I know...Answer the question...Are you still alive?"

He snickered, "I love getting you with your own words...just as much as you love getting me!"

"OK...I can sit here with a pocketful of excuses...or I can what?"

"Do something!"

"Have you ever thought that hindsight and regrets may not be a reflection of poor decisions and opportunity lost...but an indication of the gaps that yet need to be filled?"

"Perhaps you'd never have seen them without taking the path that you took..."

"Perhaps they are opportunities for achievement of your dreams..."

"You'll never see the valley if you walk on the backside of the mountain..."

"And if you walk the backside of the mountain...be happy with the view from that side!"

"If the valley view is that important...then take another trip!  What is stopping you?"

BUT...

He stopped me dead in my words...

"There you go with the regrets again!"

"They will kill you..."

"Hindsight is a gift..."

"Regrets are the rejection of that gift!"

"It is what you do with your hindsight that makes you who you are!"

"You can sit in regret and make excuses or you can do something about it!"

"You can say..."I wish I would have..." and do nothing...or you can say..."now that I know I should have...I will..."

"You can say..."I wish I wouldn't have..." and do nothing about it...or you can say..."I wish I wouldn't have and I now, I will fix it..."

"Leaders thank their hindsight and act!"

"Great Leaders live a regret-free life...Why?"  "Because they address those areas as they arise...and make them right!"  "How blind is the leader who has no regrets because he has no morality!...How rare is the leader with a moral sense and the courage to act upon it!" 

"If life is non-linear...it is never too late!"

"Treat life like as a series of hindsights...and the fleeting regrets as the catalysts of the reactions to what you learned!  Live in the world of "lessons learned" and use regrets to make things perfect...it is NEVER too late!"  "Regrets disappear from those who act and react appropriately!"

"OH YEAH....did I tell you that they got the front-end finally running?"

"That's what I came here to tell you...that's what I wrote on your desk!"

"When?" I frantically asked...

"About 2 hours ago!"

"That means that..."  I said as I looked up to see a "sunami" of product!

"Sit still," he sad..."You are ready!  They are ready!"  "You've been that way for weeks..."

"Let's go get a cup of coffee and let the next wave of hindsight take its course and develop!"

"You win some...or you learn something!"

Hindsight is a gift! 

Regrets?

ACT ON THEM!