Something To Think About

Five Minutes

By:  Dr. Michael R. McGough

He always keep things in perspective.  Good or bad, happy or sad, his outlook was essentially positive.  As a senior associate and mentor, he was a solid role model for those who worked with and for him.  He was a rather open guy, and his professional peers also shared in parts of his personal life.  Based on the parts of his personal life he chose to share, it was clearly evident that he had the same sense of perspective there as well.

Over the years his professional peers got to know him well.  He was a trusted and respect colleague, and a close personal friend who was easily admired.  People were impressed with how he kept it together and managed such a positive attitude.  He had a very simple concept of success and failure that served him well.

Among his many interests and talents, he fashioned himself as a writer.  He had a novel he had been writing for years.  He had mentioned it a few times, and once he shared a chapter with some folks in the office.  After he had it to where he wanted it, he sent it out to publishers.  He opted not to go through an agent, so the process was slower and a bit more complicated for him.  Finally, his persistence paid off.  He shared his good news and it was obvious that he was both happy and proud.  He shared it at lunch, and he got a round of congratulations and the comments as to whether he would remember his friends when it became a Hollywood block-buster movie!  Interestingly, in a matter of minutes, they were on to others topics.  He never mentioned it again, until it was released three months later.  There were a few copies that folks in the office took turns reading over the next month or so, and other than that he made no more of it.

The office that he managed was a regional headquarters.  Decisions that came from there directly affected 32 field offices. Not so long ago, a decision was made regarding retirement protocols.  The new policy was a rather significant departure from previous policy, but it was necessary to trim expenses in a sluggish economy.  It was simple, either the retirement protocols had to be tightened, or several entry-level positions were going to be cut.  He opted to tighten the protocols to save jobs. 

As you can imagine, there was a brief fire-storm of reaction, and he was at the very center of it.  There was a week or so that things went pretty rough for him.  Some long-term professional friendships were shaken, and there were some direct shots taken at his loyalty.  Clearly, an unpleasant consequence of his decision, he rolled with it and seemed to go right on with life. He was not dismissive or unconcerned with the implications of his actions, but at the same time, he did maintain his usual sense of perspective.

When asked how he was able to maintain his steady-as-she-goes point of view he explained with little hesitation.  He said that long ago he had learned that life was going to provide a rich mixture of successes and failures.  Overreacting to either one, he explained, would negatively alter one's total view of life and the part we play in it.  He concluded by saying, "I learned long ago, that successes are generally worth about five minutes of celebrating, and failures are generally worth about five minutes of angst.  I try to give each of them just about that much time, then go about the business of moving on!"