I’m in love with it. It’s an old faithful—a black Honda Accord—and if you heard it purr you wouldn’t believe it’s been on the road for over seven years now. Not only does it run well, but more importantly, the car leaves me feeling good about it. And it serves as a constant reminder of a lesson I learned some years ago.
It all started a few months after I got the car. It was brand new and I loved to keep it looking that way by working on its shine. So you can understand my anguish when an absent-minded guy on a motorbike clipped my car while I was waiting at a traffic light. The damage wasn’t serious, but the marks on the fender meant the car was no longer in the mint condition I took so much pride in. I was determined to set it right immediately, influenced by the theories I had imbibed about looking for perfection. I feared that if I was okay with the scratch at the back and didn’t set it right, it would be the beginning of more scratches and dents and soon the car would look like a wreck. Perhaps I was also influenced by the theory that you could tell the nature of a person by looking at his car. If he drove a car which looked beat-up, he was perhaps a disorganized person who didn’t set high standards for himself! It was around this time that I read Malcolm Gladwell’s view on curbing violence in New York. He said they fixed broken windowpanes as soon as they could, and cleaned up graffiti in the metro stations, and that got the message across that the authorities meant business. Hooliganism and violence declined dramatically. The message seemed clear: I must keep my car spotlessly clean!
And then I saw the video of Professor Randy Pausch’s last lecture. In it he made a reference to having a dent on his car—and not thinking too much about it. His message? Don’t get too caught up in the trappings and the frills. A scratch on a car is really inconsequential. A car is meant to take you from place A to place B, and so long as it does that, don’t bother too much about the paint!
Two diametrically opposing viewpoints, both of which made sense. What was one to do?
It struck me that this dichotomy seems to pervade all aspects of business and life. On several issues, you will hear conflicting viewpoints. There is a school of thought that says businesses should stay focused and ‘stick to the knitting’. And there is another that says businesses should diversify to avoid the risk of becoming obsolete. Whom do you listen to?
You hear how sales teams should aim to achieve their targets. There are no prizes for ‘almost getting there’—in sport and in life. And just when you start seeing the merit in this advice, someone might share this classic quote from Michelangelo: ‘The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.’ Wow! So what should you do? Make sure you beat targets? Or aim for that hard-to-reach goal?
And the list goes on. For almost every piece of advice, you will find someone recommending just the opposite. The trick is to find what works for you—in your specific case—and go with it. Try and understand the underlying philosophy in the advice—and choose what works well for you. What you should certainly not do is try and please everyone. If you go down that path, you could end up a nervous wreck. Don’t get caught up in inaction, unable to pick one or the other. Look at the evidence, survey the alternatives and pick the one that you think is right. And go with it wholeheartedly. Don’t keep worrying about the naysayers who say, ‘On the other hand . . .’ That’s often the perfect recipe for not doing anything.
So how does my seven-year-old Honda Accord look now? It has a little dent on the body above the right wheel. It’s been there for a while now, and I have let it be. And every time I see it, I remind myself not to worry too much about the small things. A car is meant to take me from place A to place B—and my old Honda Accord (with the scratches) does that as well as anything else! I have made my peace with the scratches and the dents. They help remind me to enjoy the ride and to make sure I am moving towards my destination—without worrying about the look of the car or how it compares with someone else’s! Perhaps in an indirect way, it’s taught me to look at people with the same eyes: look for what’s within, look at their work, and don’t worry too much about frills and appearances.
Should I get the scratches cleaned? Should I obsess over its looks? Do the dents say something about me? I don’t know. And frankly, I don’t care. I’ve made my choice and I am happy with that!
The next time you are confronted with seemingly contradictory pieces of advice, don’t go into a tizzy. In life, there is seldom one right answer.
Most importantly, remember to enjoy the drive!
Dichotomy seems to pervade all aspects of business and life. On several issues, you will hear conflicting viewpoints. So what should you do? Find what works for you—in your specific case—and go with it.
In life, there is seldom one right answer.