I watched a couple of the Matrix movies on TNT tonight and I was struck by the amount of failures. Trinity and Neo died, so did a lot of other humans. In HBRs latest issue I read about the failure of Blockbuster. One perspective by the last great CEO of the company and the other by the Activist investor that gained control as the company phased out in a whimper of self-destruction. And this all led to a thought about Jesus. A guy, whether you believe in his religion or not, who was murdered by a bunch of people that think like us. The good guy is taken down, but the implications of immediate victory are ultimately realized to be a failure.
And lastly I think about my time with a company that I helped create. A company that I left in the hands of another person.
My new boss asked me, “how could you just walk away?”
To which I responded, “it was a learning experience, like university. I learned more in those five years then I ever would from going to school.”
While I still believe what I told him it is apparent to me that there are things I could have done differently.
John Antioco, former CEO of Blockbuster, wrote, “And if I could turn back the clock, I might focus on….”
When I look back on my life there are undoubtedly things that I wish I would have focused on or different directions I wish I had taken. But, early in the morning, when I am looking my scraggly ass in the mirror, I realize I can’t. The only thing I can do is sober up and work a little harder at making today more beneficial (successful) for those around me.
4 comments:
"Regret" is one of the worst concepts in life. It makes you constantly focus on things you can't affect - namely, what's happened in the past.
Granted, looking back and analyzing can be useful, so long as the goal is to change today and tomorrow. But getting trapped in a loop of "if only" does zero good and a lot of bad.
People have asked me what I regret in my past, and I tell them honestly nothing. Yes, I've made mistakes - but I've also learned from them. It might have been nice to do without hurting people, but that isn't how life works: if I hadn't hurt the people I cared about, it wouldn't have pushed me to change as much.
And, regardless of how it sounds, I like who I am today; as such, I can't really want to change anything that made me who I am.
im getting the itch to write again
Hey Austin - Thanks for the comments; sorry for the delayed response.
I completely agree with your comments on the "if only" loop. I look at the past and wonder what I could have done differently. A friend of mine said that I over analyze and he may be right, but over analyzing helps me logically think about what I would do in a similar situation next time. What worked and what didn't.
I also agree that mistakes are one of the easiest things to learn from. There's a reason why there are more studies done on failures rather than successes. But I also don't want to make the same mistakes over and over again.
Maybe that's one of my issues; I don't really like who I am. I have always felt emptiness and nothing I do fills the void.
Brother - well write then dude.
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