Diamonds Among The Weeds

Many years ago I worked for a very wise man who was, by many reconnings, also somewhat crazy. The thing is, if you could accept and get past the "crazy" bit, there were diamonds among the weeds. I remember him often saying, "You have to walk north to get the car to go south to Bolton!" which, in itself, is pretty much meaningless, but when put into contexted it becomes one of those exceptional gems.

I was Vice-President of Information Technology for a manufacturing company which had it's head offices in a building on a rural horse ranch. It was an interesting combination of rolling meadows, galloping fillies, treed lanes, rail fences, and corporate management. Nice! The farm, as we called it, was located about 10 miles north of the Town of Bolton and the company parking lot was just north of the main office building. Thus the boss's oft spoken phrase.

But what did it all mean? It was a practical statement of the fact that you had to walk out of the office and go north to the parking lot to get your car even though your actual destination was to the south. What the boss meant was sometimes, in many things, you must start out in a direction, or activity, that appears to be going the wrong way in order to get to the ultimate destination, or goal, which is in a different direction entirely.

You could, of course, leave the office and and immediately begin walking south to Bolton but, at ten miles distance across fields and through woodlands, it is much more practical to walk the few dozen yards north (the wrong direction) to your car and then follow the twists and turns of the various roads you must take in order to finally reach Bolton ten miles to the south.

Just like this simple, if somewhat obvious, example, we can easily set out on a journey of success with our goal firmly in hand and be drawn toward it when, in fact, we would have been far better to start out in a different, and less obvious, direction in order to get there more easily, more quickly. Don't let the beacon of your desired goal also be a blinding light keeping you from seeing the truth. Remember, sometimes you have to walk north to get the car to go south to Bolton!

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