London Business School Education, £40,000. Drinks, travel, and a chance to regroup, £30,000. A chance post education to draw the sword on a few people in my old company who deserve it, priceless. Or, so I thought.
I don’t want this post Googled so I’m going to be vague in this post, but over the last few weeks I’ve been in discussions with an old employer to become a trustee for their organisation here in the UK. Frankly, I actually had two objectives with the move. First, I wanted to become more connected within this area because it is an industry that I want to launch a company. And second, I have questioned the leadership ability and organisation of this company since way before the MBA.
What I realised though, only after wasting a week and some time over email, was that it really wasn’t going to help me stay connected in the channel and the chance to sort out some issues with my ‘old company’ just was not worth the time or effort.
One of my favorite quotes is by a guy named William Feather, “Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” Prior to abandoning Ya-who? it appeared on all of my email messages. I never found a quote that better showed my view of the world. Most of my success has come because I just worked far harder than most people and because I refused to give up. My focus is my strength. And, my weakness.
Happily, thanks to the MBA and a new found ability to clearly cycle through various scenarios I’m learning to control my old habits including not knowing when to let go. For me, there’s too much to be done to waste time settling old scores or sharpening an axe that should have been put away years ago.
It’s time to let go. It’s time to grab onto new ledges and hang on tightly. I only have around 30-35 years to accomplish the things I want to accomplish.
So, every once in a while, one has to let go.
As I’m in the process of doing a self assessment to compile a the “story package” for B-School apps, I find myself hearing and becoming a believer that Management & Leadership can’t be learn from classroom, work experience, and gut feelings along; it’s a combination of all these ingredients. However, 1 skill I’d love to get better at is what you described: Ability to prioritize and able to make a judgment call that you see best… So, thanks for posting this and the reassurance!