The Recipe for Success

It always seems strange how our contact ebbs and wanes...

He seems to always be present with me...yet there are times that he intentionally leaves me alone to my own demise or success...

Whether I succeeded or failed and learned something...he was always there to celebrate...

Our celebrations always included the "war story" while it was fresh in our minds...

We traded perspectives...and documented them...sometimes literally and other times mentally...

"There is no difference between success and failure," he would always remind me.

"Every event in one's life is the sum total of the inputs..."

"There is no other possible outcome to be had...except for the one that resulted..."

"Remorse is an insane response to any event..."

"Why feel remorseful when it could not have been any different...given the set of circumstances (inputs)?"

"If you wanted a different outcome...you should have used a different recipe!"

"One can not put the ingredients in the oven for a pie and expect a cake to come out!"

Over time, that repeated reminder drove both remorse and elation from me.

Not that I became numb...I still felt sadness and happiness...but I recognized them for what they were in relation to the present...and they were no longer carried (as baggage) into the future and allowed to filter my inputs to the future/present...

"Remember that all future activities are inputs into the present..."

"All plans are inputs into the present..."

"All dreams are inputs into the present..."

"What happens in the future is the recipe for your next present..."

This perspective really messed with my head...

I always thought that the future was related to the present like the present is related to the past...

Quite linear and sequential...

The way he talked actually flipped my perspective 180 degrees...

"It is all about what you have learned and where you live and put your energy," he would confide

""It is about the flow of knowledge...what you remember (learned) and what you forgot..."

"Knowledge and wisdom, from the past and present, flow into the future.  It filters and controls it..."

"The problem with most people is that they always leave one ingredient in their future that (more often than not) ruins the present..."

"You would think that they would learn..."

"Do you know what it is?"

"No I do not'" I responded...

"Actually...you do...just not consciously...I learned it from you..."

"It is so simple that you'll think that I have deceived myself of its significance...but this is not the case!" 

"You do not allow the possibility of failure to exist, as one of your inputs..."

He could see the disappointment on my face.  I was expecting some deep and hidden truth...

Instead...it was all about what I left out...the possibility of failure...

Mixed into the look of disappointment was also a question...that he quickly picked up upon...

"Failure is a dormant and lethal virus...a threat to every present event..."

"In fact the present...always seems to activate failure virus..."

"Allowing for the possibility for failure...injects it into the event...and it resides into the future event...ever so inconspicuously...in VERY small and undetectable quantities..."

"The failure virus is a robust entity...given the opportunity...and the right growing conditions...(Which seems to be any condition)...it will multiply and over-take the host...turning the event into exactly what it wants...rather than what it was intended to be..."

"When did I show you that?" I asked

"Time for a war story!"

"Do you remember when you were put in charge of that HUGE software system migration?"

"How could I forget that one?"

"You were a good project manager...but this was the first time in your career that you did a project that included the migration of an entire software system"

"What you did that taught me this important lesson...was that you broke the overall migration into smaller migrations...manageable pieces...and you scheduled windows for each migration...1 hour in length...around the clock..."

"Your goal for the overall effort was to successfully migrate each sub-application within that window..."

"It was the application manager's responsibility to ensure their part was thoroughly tested and ready for the time that their window opened..."

"I also remember that you were criticized for not having put in time within each window for problem resolution...you were called a fool...and your response was..."

"If I build in time for fixing...someone is going to use it..."

"I loved that..."

"You turned your pager off...because that thing was only used for escalations of problems..."

"If you really believed that problems were not going to occur...why tempt them in by having a path into your effort..."

"They called you naive and stupid...but you held to your plan..."

"You controlled the future by your actions within the present..."

"AND IT WORKED!"

"This taught me that controlling risk was more than having alternative path in the event that something went awry...you only allowed one path to success...and ignored all of the others possible routes..."

"Literally millions of lines of codes migrated in short order without a hitch!"

"It appeared that the odds were against you...but you created a legend!" 

"That legend was not created by what you did...but with what you didn't allow!"

"I DID THAT?!!?"

"Many successful people got that way by not realizing that failure was so imminent!  The consistently successful person is not naive or stupid...but wise to the threat of failure and does not allow it to be an option..."

"Whether you realize it or not...this has been one of your keys to success...that I actually borrowed from your behavior and made it part of mine!  

"I learned early in my career that "failure" is always knocking at one's door!  It is a pervasive entity...constantly looking for an opportunity to contribute to your present..."

"I did not like what it had to offer..."

"It is not that I ignored the threat of failure...but I learned a lesson from Don Quixote!"

"I didn't waste my time...chasing windmills..."

"Many efforts spend more time on averting issues and failure (some highly unlikely ones) than on the effort itself"

"I diverted as much of my energy on making something happen...rather than planning for what I would do WHEN it failed!"

"So you did that intentionally?"

"Yes!"

"You learned that from the story of Don Quixote?"

"Yes!"

"Well done!"

 I seldom heard those words...and knew that it actually meant that I would probably be seeing less of him...

For now...