FIG. 11 Pursuing the extremes presents its own set of problems.
Just like playing to the middle, playing to the extremes is the
kind of middle mismanagement that plays out all the time.
TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE
My wife once told me the story of a friend of hers. The friend’s
mother was a schoolteacher and her father was a farmer. They had
scrimped, saved, and done with less their entire lives in anticipation
of retirement and travel. The woman fondly remembered the regular
shopping trips she and her mother would take to the local fabric store
where they would pick out some fabric and patterns. The mother
explained that when she retired these would be her travel clothes.
She never got to her retirement years. In her final year of
teaching, she developed cancer and later died. The father never felt
good about spending the money they’d saved, believing that it was
“their” money and now she wasn’t there to share it with him. When he
passed away and my wife’s friend went to clean out her parents’
home, she discovered a closet full of fabric and dress patterns. The
father had never cleaned it out. He couldn’t. It represented too much.
It was as if its contents were so full of unfulfilled promises that they
were too heavy to lift.
Time waits for no one. Push something to an extreme and
postponement can become permanent.
I once knew a highly successful businessman who had worked
long days and weekends for most of his life, sincere in his belief that
he was doing it all for his family. Someday when he was done, they
would all enjoy the fruits of his labor, spend time together, travel, and
do all the things they’d never done. After giving many years to
building his company he had recently sold it and was open to
discussing what he might do next. I asked him how he was doing and
he proudly proclaimed that he was fine. “When I was building the
business, I was never home and rarely saw my family. So now I’m