Academics at UCL have identified 18 reasons why megaprojects such as HS2 and Crossrail often fail, as well as 54 preventative solutions. The study found that no isolated factor could account for the poor performance of megaprojects. Instead, the paper is the first to identify several causes and suggest a systemic approach to enhance understanding of megaprojects.
The team list the six themes as decision-making behavior; strategy, governance and procurement; risk and uncertainty; leadership and capable teams; stakeholder engagement and management; supply chain integration and coordination. They were found to be all of equal importance when analyzing why such projects seem doomed to fail. (1)
Aim high. Fall hard.
Does it matter?
Failures are signposts for success anyway. Why fear of them?
The question is not whether failure is good or bad, but whether we should strive for success in the first place! What is success really? Would you celebrate for a mega-project? Would you celebrate for changing the world? Or would that be a cause for sadness?
We admire those who succeed in life.
But they are essentially those who fail to accept death.
We admire change imposed by us.
But this only disguises failure to adapt to what already Is.
There is a great hype lately about how some new billionaire must be our new idol. And I totally disagree with that hype. Billionaires are not only overrated. They are constantly advertising all those things that should not be part of the principles in a man’s life.
To begin with, there is nothing wrong with being successful. I am not arguing against that. I am arguing against the definition of successful though.
Successful is raising your kids without having money.
Not creating companies with your dad’s money.
Successful is having a hard life and still smile.
Not being a rock star and being praised for working more than eight hours.
Successful is having a family and raising your kids.
Not changing women like shirts and buying your kids yachts.
Successful is creating a good company without subsidies.
Not posing as an entrepreneur with my money.
Successful is finishing your phD or your bachelor’s degree.
Not quitting school because you had an ‘idea’.
Successful is having humble beginning and still stay humble.
Not pose as the new Tony Stark while governments (or agencies) support your ideas.
Successful is breaking your will to accept the world.
Not breaking everything to impose your own will to the cosmos.
Does that sound like failure to you?You might be right.Because at the end, success is not measured by success. No, these are not excuses for me not being a billionaire. I am sure I would be one if I had the Jedi-mind ability to convince people of things which might lead them to jail or if I managed to convince NASA to give me money to build spaceships with a company I owned which could not make spaceships (random example). I am sure I would be a zillionaire if I decided to leave all my family and children and friends while pursuing my dream to save the cosmos from something it never asked to be saved from.
People admire Bruce Lee for being a master of the martial arts. But there is nothing magic in being one. All you have to do is practice all day long every day until you die. See? You can be Bruce Lee too. And a billionaire (but then you wouldn’t have time to get that black belt). And a phD holder (but then you wouldn’t have time to be a billionaire). And a family guy (but then you might not even have time to get a phD)…
It is all a matter of priorities. So get your’s straight. And stop admiring false idols.
At the end, every man (and woman) can go on his own path. What we need to make sure though is not that the path is enlightened. But that the path leads to light at the end…
If that difference troubles you, then cheer up. You are in the right path already. Only some tears away from a smile…
A recent article portrayed a woman who managed to become a CEO before she was thirty. (source) This is not the only case where “Doing more and more” is praised as the main way people should pursue their existence in this life.
Modern civilization and today’s society praises the ones who push their limits, do more and more, reach out to challenge themselves,
Everything seem to be well thought out. And yet, behind the seemingly obvious and well earned success and happiness for doing more, something deeply hideous lies. Hannah Arendt had put it extremely elonquently at the end of the Human Condition. As Cicero says, “When you do nothing, you will suddenly realize that you are doing the most”! Modern man has embarked on a Sisyphian endless process that only leads to dead ends. At the end of this life, lies death. In the heart of our existence, meaningless noise. We need silence to listen to the cosmos. We need peace to make the cosmos listen to us. It would take a lot to describe why striving constantly for more is wrong and I will not do that.
Anyone who knows what I’m talking about will recognize it (tautology).
Anyone who doesn’t, would definitely not learn it here…
It is really astonishing how humanity insists on forgetting the fruitful role of failure in our lives.
We actually tend to believe that success happens just out of the blue: a person thinks of something innovative and he then materializes it. It’s all a happy story. As simple as that. That person managed to be so creative because he was… creative!
Simple, huh? NOT!
Reality is all too much different.
A person cannot be innovative or creative just… Because! Someone gets creative when he has failed a thousand times to perform a task he thought easy. We tend to be innovative only after all-too-many attempts have proved a total catastrophy. Only after all too many plans we schetched have proved problematic.
An innovative idea is the grandchild of Failure…
Not only must we not be afraid to fail, but we must see failure as a dear friend.
