The Stick of Dynamite

WFH in lockdown can be a highly productive period if you maintain a searing sense of urgency.

It’s a lesson I learned working with the late, great John R Caldon.

John had asked a colleague to prepare a presentation for a client about a possible takeover target. I later checked with our colleague regarding its progress, and he told me it would be late by a couple of days as he was waiting on certain information to arrive.

I complacently relayed the news to John.

John rarely got flustered but on this occasion, he was visibly annoyed: “While we’re busy perfecting our presentation, our competitors are meeting with our client and eating our lunch.”

John then said something I never forgot: “That guy is smarter than me, Adam, but he’ll never be as successful – because he doesn’t have a stick of dynamite stuck up his arse.”

This comment made such an impression on me that years later I turned it into a cartoon caricature and had it printed on the “EG history” mural.

Never be complacent about missing a deadline, internal or external. The margin between success and failure in business is often very small.

Every time you defer or delay an item on your to-do list, you should hear the hiss of that burning fuse.

To excel in business is to excel at “busyness”.