Chapter 23
The Hat Pin Perspective
By John Counsel
This is a wonderfully clarifying perspective when it comes to disciplining ourselves to invest the time and effort needed to apply the Bow and Arrow Principle in our businesses and in our lives!
In 1980 I was Marketing and Advertising Manager for a large automotive group in Melbourne, Australia. There were fifteen senior managers in the group and, every Wednesday evening, we’d meet in the board room to review the previous week’s performances. Our individual departments’ results would be projected onto the wall – and the walls would sometimes be covered in blood by the end of the meeting! It wasn’t unusual for a manager never to be seen again after a third or fourth disastrous week.
As part of the managing director’s appraisal of his management team, we would each chair the weekly meeting, in turn. He would say very little, simply nudging the meeting back on track, or adding insights, as he deemed necessary.
One Wednesday evening there was stunned silence when the figures for the new vehicle division were displayed. None of us could believe the extent of the loss. It was staggering.
The manager of this division – which normally posted a healthy profit – was quick to point out that this was due to delays in signing of several new fleet contracts (caused by changes to the laws and regulations), all of which would come on board in the ensuing six weeks.
Then began a protracted argument between the manager and the group’s “bean counters” over whether the loss could – or should – be amortised over the next six weeks so that it would be more than offset by those lucrative fleet sales.
For more than half an hour he argued his case, desperate not to have his outstanding track record spoiled by one extraordinary week’s losses.
As we sat there, bored stiff and wishing something would be resolved, and quickly, we were shaken from our reverie by the managing director’s booming voice.
“Charlie,” he rumbled, “this has gone on long enough. I want you to think of it like this… I want you to imagine that I have in my hand a six inch hat pin that I’m going to bring over there and shove right up your [fundamental orifice]!”
It was a riveting mental image, for all of us!
“You’ve got two choices, Charlie,” he explained, having gained the new vehicle manager’s undivided attention.
“You can have all six inches right now… or an inch a week for the next six weeks!”
Like I said, it’s a wonderfully clarifying perspective.
The moral is clear: if pain is unavoidable, get it over and get on with living. By delaying the inevitable we simply prolong the agony and, in the meantime, become paralysed by fear, making the eventual, painful consequences many times worse.
There’s an old saying, from another time and place, that also puts it into clear perspective:
“The coward dies a thousand times; the hero dies but once.”
And Charlie?
He showed his true, heroic leadership qualities by deciding instantly to take the pain right there and then – and enjoyed untarnished rewards in the following weeks.The Hat Pin Perspective in Action
- Bite the bullet.
- Discipline yourself.
- Stop procrastinating.
- Take time out to plan and prepare.
- Do your Business Plan.
- Do your market research.
- Keep your axe sharp.
- Get the training you need.
- Make decisions.
- (See also “The Rocket Principle” and “The Gordian Knot Perspective”.)
Taken from
“Don’t Go Into Small Business
Until You Read This Book!”
by John Counsel
Small Business Books 1996
© 1996, 1997 by John Counsel
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