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9/15/2008

It is better to throw behind the train

Sometimes I hear the saying, it is better if we throw behind the train. The person smiles friendly and expects that I delay my concern until other people finish a project(=train).


In the project business that may be quite useful. A project creates the foundations upon which I will continue to build my own project.


Some people develop this saying to an attitude to life. Do not be the first to move. Do not be the first to do something. Do not invest work in trying to convince colleagues of a change. Be always in the slipstream of other events to act or have a break. Perhaps like an eagle uses the thermals to fly, these people move only if they can borrow the kinetic energy from others.


An eagle does not know when he will get something to eat next. Thus it is reasonable for him to act like this because his life depends on it. In professional life, we can systematically build our forces, we do not die immediately, if we work harder for a limited time.


Some go a step further and evaluate the roles. Behind the train lying people are clever, good. The train is stupid, he needs a lot of force to achieve his objectives.


To all those who lie on the tracks in order to benefit from the work of others, I can only say that it always come down to themselves. We are the trains for our career goals, for us nobody really wants to free the way. The coming train never goes in the direction in which you yourself want to go. That is due to the differing interests in a company. And if they were equal, there would be no reason not to ride on the train.


Who waits with others on trains behind which he can throw himself is waiting in vain on his progress. The others only stalled for time. They never really wanted to do something. The wonderful insight is, that after the train is equal to before the train.


"The train is over, do we start now?"

"Oh, you know there's still the department X with his project and, if we still wait .... We are not so dumb to throw us in front of a train, are we ....?"

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sometimes I am the train, sometimes I ride on the train. These all depend upon what the action is. I usually falter when the action concerns something that involves risk directly involving the welfare of my family. If there is a very slight percentage that it may become negative, then I opt not to be the train.

Thanks for that insightful post. Making me stop and think , as usual.

Anonymous said...

This is a little off topic, but I wanted to let you know that I've tagged you for the A-Z tag. You can get the information from my site. Have a great day!

Anonymous said...

Dear ray,

Wouldn't we all prefer to just go with the flow, never having to challange the main stream for a new turn?

But nature won't let us escape this responsibility, will it?

The responsibility of becoming the ones we were born to become,

to sometimes go quietly in the middle of the flock, with our heads kept down,

only to occasionally make a stand and break away from the preconceived ideas and prevailing norms,

because we think that we actually saw something of great value behind a corner, that we are about to miss if we continue in the same old direction,

perhaps we will do this slowly and in a sly fashion, convincing others to help us make the difficult turn,

or alone and victimized, kicking and screaming, and sometimes inevitably loosing out, being forced back into the flock, crucified as it were,

but still, little by little, helping the world to evolve, in the way it has to.

ssgreylord said...

I like to think of the age old children's story about the train that could. "i think i can, i think i can, i think i can..."

Mark said...

Excellent analogy!! Very important to create an awareness of who we are in relation to the train.

Ray Gratzner said...

Dear jena, you have an elaborate riskmanagement. It is wise not to endanger the fruits of your past work... Happy blogging.

Dear lea, thank you for tagging me. I hope, I will see to it at the weekend... ;-) All the best

Dear a.v.c. your comment makes me think about it. ..of being part of a flock, trying to follow the great values that seem to be in the neighboorhood... Thank you for this touching comment.... All the best..

Dear ssgreylord, well I like the image of little children saying that, 'I think, I can' Happy blogging

Ray Gratzner said...

Dear mark, thank you for this thought, you always have clear and concise view. All the best...