Yesterday morning, as I was backing my car out of our home garage, I managed to rip off a hunk of car sidewall-bumper, as well as the door’s moulding. My family members could quickly tell something wasn’t quite right as I let off a series of very loud expletives at the driveway. Presumably the neighbours, if they were around (I think fortunately not) would have heard the ruckus as well.
It wasn’t one of my proudest moments. Presumably, the repairs will cost several hundred dollars (maybe more than $1,000), and take a hunk of time and energy that could have been devoted to more enjoyable tasks.
But after I cooled down, I realized (a) the accident is 100 per cent my responsibility and (b) no good will come from harping on the problem? — instead, I’ll just do what I need to do to make things right.
Of course, life is full of these challenges. Some are smaller and some are bigger. The most serious ones arise from foolishness, insensitivity and the inability to control emotions or urges.
For example, there is a scam going around on the internet where “hackers” purport to have found our passwords, and also other damming information about visits to porno sites and the like. Worse, at least in my case, they appear at times to have found a password I have been using. Trouble is, I haven’t visited a porn site in quite a few years. And since the same threatening email seems to be arriving with increasing frequency from a variety of places, I can only assume that someone has built and sold a sucker list on the dark web.
On a more serious level, in the last couple of weeks, two Canadian politicians have resigned for alleged sexually inappropriate actions. The stories are cryptic — political higher-ups have remained elusive about the details, in fact in some cases coming up with cover stories that don’t accurately describe the situation. But from what I can see, the politicians engaged in behaviour that even the most amateur person could have considered to be risky.
These stories relate to marketing and challenges. There are different types of risk in business. Clearly, far too often we are afraid to stray from the norm; to try something different, to explore options, to ask for the order, or simply to suggest or implement a creative strategy. On the other hand, all too often we take unnecessary risks because of our carelessness or in some cases our vices, and we put our lives and businesses (and certainly our brands) into jeopardy.
The moral here is simple: Let’s take responsibility for our actions and decisions, and apply a bit of common sense to risk. I am not perfect and have and will make some rather embarrassing mistakes. But hopefully these blunders won’t stop me from experimenting, risking and creating new things.
