14th March 2011
When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.
Confucius
The first electric bulb made by Thomas Alva Edison did not burn, but he did not give up his search for the right process. The first war against the British rule started by Mahatma Gandhi did not send the British back to England. Mother Teresa did not succeed in her mission from the very first day. Nor did Colonel Sanders was able to market his chicken recipe to the world from day one.
It is said that the Apollo moon flight was off course nearly 90 percent of the time from the time it was launched till it landed on the moon. But the NASA was continuously monitoring the path and was making course correction to ensure that the space craft made a perfect landing on the moon.
Sir Edmund Hillary did not scale Mount Everest in the very first attempt. He failed. But he kept improving himself. A few weeks after he failed to climb Mount Everest, he was invited to speak in a club. He walked to the edge of the stage, he made a fist, pointed at a picture of the Mount Everest and shouted in a loud voice, ` Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I'll bet you the next time because you've grown all your going to grow....but I am still growing!'.
The name of the game is continuous self improvement. Edward Deming, who played a major role in the post war revival of Japan, called this as `Constancy of Purpose for continual improvement of products and service to the society'.
Do a small exercise over this weekend. List three projects you gave up over the last six months and review the strategy you followed. Keeping the same project in mind, evolve a different strategy to accomplish the same task once again.
N C Sridharan
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