CEO Health Blog

The above picture clearly defines the “Means to an End”.

Jan 11, 2016

If the bridge is your end goal you are either completely ignorant of its purpose, or worse, you have built something redundant from the start, as for many good reasons, you will find there is eventually – no need of use!

People (in general) hate facing the future – especially most hate dealing with problems or issues that require long term solutions. How often in a boardroom have I heard the Chief Executive Officer, Chairman, the GM, the CFO, the CIO etc., say when someone points out an arising issue or problem, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it”, just to shut-up the informer or questioner.

Redundant bridges are everywhere with people standing on them with no where to go! Why? They have built a bridge to no-where because they have lost the plot of the journey! In many cases bridges are not required and simply become monuments to be admired or diversions and costs to be condemned. Bridges get built when not needed and not built when they should be because that’s what the “boss” said would be crossed “One Day, when they come to it”, hoping of course they will never come to it and the problem or issue will just go away.

Everyone talks as if crossing the bridge is the goal. The bridge is not the problem nor the goal, but it sure can become one! The problem is the river, harbour, chasm, gulf, valley, great gap or rift that may hinder and stop the journey being completed successfully. Of course, once you have crossed the river or the harbour you need no further use of the bridge. It is now redundant for you (except of course for others who may be following you), and you rejoice in the momentous occasion of crossing that great gulf, river or rift – not the bridge – although the bridge was useful to you and saved a lot of time and difficulty had it not been there.

These gaps, chasms and rifts can be found in every business and the bridges for many never get built, or the ones that are started get sabotaged and/or put off into the future due to very poor future insight or failing current vision and understanding of the present world conditions, financially, socially and governmentally etc. These gaps, chasms and rifts etc., are found in relationships, partnerships, between collaborating departments, executives and co-workers etc. They are found in all strata’s of society, community, religion, family, all levels of government, and between countries and race. Do not focus on the means! Focus on the goal! The purpose is lost when you focus on the means to the end, instead of the end itself.

In a nutshell:
Goal –  To fulfil the journey negotiate the crossing!
In some cases you may need to build a Bridge, use a Ferry, dig a Tunnel, or start a Fire.
Means –  Build it! Get over it! Forget about it! It is not a monument of success. It is just a means to an end!
Goal –  Complete the journey!
John R Fergusson

Avoiding “The Illusion of Success”

Jan 6, 2016

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“Help others believe they are successful. Belief is more powerful than reality!”

Failure and success are companions on the same journey. Show people the pathway of failure they must avoid and most will gladly go down it with the goal to prove it’s not true. Show the same people the pathway of success and most will gladly avoid the pain it causes which is why it is so easy to fail to learn the hard way.

Failure and success are choices, often made at the beginning of the journey. Both can be difficult to recognise at the beginning.

Most of us measure success or failure by the end result based on our expectations. This form of measure is erroneous as it is arbitrary and circumstantial. For example, your success could simply be due to the failure of everyone else, which would be purely circumstantial. We only have a first place “winner” in a race or competition, because all other competitors failed. If they never failed all would be equally first and winners.

Instead of looking at how one avoids failure, we should be looking at how one avoids success, then and only then, will we be able to determine what, or who, is missing in our formula and what, or who, should be expunged from our formula in order to ensure success.

Most people try to avoid failure and due to this phenomenon of avoiding failure being foremost in mind, it guarantees their failure.
Because avoiding success in your mind is not an option, spending your time thinking about avoiding it will guarantee your success – you won’t be able to avoid it!
However, if your success is due to the failures of others in the race, you are not successful at all – it is nothing more than an illusion, and nothing sets businesses up for failure faster than that.

• The procedure of success is discovery of success and implementing its goals.

• The process of failure is discovery of failure and preventing it reaching its goals.

Everyone has been successful at failure, so what’s the big deal about success?

• The weakness of success is its achievement.

• The strength of success is its journey.

—— Don’t set goals where the paradigms are controlled by others.
Goals that are set where you control the paradigms will always be met. However, no controls set = no goals met!
—— Many businesses have already lost or had their future stolen. Discover the thieves in your business – they are in your present unknown!

Present success is always based on past decisions. Great future success is based on today’s great decisions and carefully planned controls.
Prevention is cheaper than cure, consulting costs less than ignorance or embarrassment.

Learning by your mistakes is a very slow pathway to establishing and growing your business. There are many more “shortcuts” to business failure than there ever will be to business success. But, consulting can help straighten out the journey and get rid of curves, dead-ends and the odd time wasting cul-de-sac and of course the bridges you’ll use, but never cross.
John R Fergusson
http://bacupthefuture.com.au/

Call me: +61 (0)2 9898 0681