The worst kind of losses are the ones that you never even fight. You lost before you ever knew there was a fight to put up. The result came and decision was made before you could even open your mouth to protest much less put up any resistance.
The sad thing is, it is not because we were not ready for a fight. In fact, most likely, we were in a fight not just the fight. Sort of like worrying about dying of a heart attack and suddenly discovering that you have a life ending development of cancer. The regret is that if you would have known, you might have done something, or in other words fought the corrext fight.
This happens so many times in life. We are busy fighting the lesser adversary while the real enemy is preparing for the fatal blow. Many times we are caught off guard, or found unprepared because we were fighting some petty skirmish and not preparing for the real thing.
This COVID crisis has taught me this. Several months ago, we were busy fighting through what we thought was the battle at hand (whatever that was). Then this crisis hit, and companies and individuals immediately went into protect the core mode. The real war kicked in, the survival path. So we learned a valuable lesson, we were not ready for a war. We were playing around complaining about the discomforts of basic training. Now we know. Now we know what is really at stake and how bad it could of been.
We got lucky, so I guess we now know what we really need to do. Establish our war footing. Prepare for the real enemy, and accept less mediocrity. Be stong and courageous and over prepare. Time to stop borrowing from a future that could very easily not exist.
Guy Reams