I talk about Personal Growth, Management, Infrastructure and More | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
If you think that this is impossible today, you’re...
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You’ve probably heard about a space ship hitting badly Venus or Mars, I don’t remember, because of miscalculations, right? Well, that’s everywhere. When you do your taxes, when you calculate your retirement or when you receive an inheritance. All are miscalculation errors. In construction, there are everywhere. In 1970, during the construction of the Kadena Air Base Bridge in Okinawa, Japan, engineers made a slight miscalculation. As usual… Two teams started building from opposite sides of the river, expecting to meet perfectly in the middle. But when they finally got close... one side was 2 meters higher than the other! I mean… not 1 cm, not 2 cm, not 10 cm… just 2 meters. The error? One team had used metric measurements, while the other worked in imperial units. If you think that this is impossible today, you’re absolutely wrong. If you don’t believe me, check this list of lessons learnt from my last project.
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Vicente Valencia
I talk about Personal Growth, Management, Infrastructure and More | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
You’re dropped into a project. No time. No context. “Figure it out.” Good. There are only 3 questions that matter. I repeat, only 3. Not 10 or 20. Just 3: What needs to be done? Who is doing it now? Is that the right person? That’s it. That’s the whole job. And by the way… That’s every serious managerial role. If you answer those 3 properly, you win. If you don’t… Welcome to the world of: Long hours. Endless meetings. Zero real progress. You’ll be stuck working on the 80%… That delivers 20%....
I get it. I’ve been CEO. I know what ego feels like. That urge to change things. To leave your mark. To justify the big salary. I get it. But changing things that already work? Just to prove you exist? No. That I don’t get. Look. I’ve been speaking with people across PPP and Real Estate. Different countries. Same story. “Like beheaded chickens.” Clients changing direction mid-procurement. Swapping teams halfway through. Rewriting strategy… in the middle of a transaction. Yes. That bad. Even...
Most consultants are expensive spectators. Nice slides.Clean Excel models.Zero impact. They show up.They talk.They disappear. And the project?Still stuck. In the mouse wheel… running but still in the same place. It may be the perverse incentive of maximizing gains by increasing scope and delaying everything… although that’s for another days. Look… In big projects, nobody pays you for your time.They pay you for one thing: Movement. Decisions made.Problems killed.Risks reduced.Money saved....