Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
This executive is living in fear
|
It’s not a story of mine. No. The great Nassim Nicholas Taleb, in his book Antifragile compared two people: a high-level executive with a good salary, dressed in a suit and tie, and an immigrant taxi driver, self-employed, with a variable income and dressed as best he can. Taleb remarked that, while the executive may seem to have a calmer, more secure life with a better salary, better suits, and nicer restaurants, deep down, he lived in immense internal fear. He sh*t in his pants. This fear comes from his status. Everything he now has and doesn’t want to lose. Comfort zone or the pay check drug. The executive trembles whenever company cutbacks are announced, loses sleep thinking he might be fired, and feels like his world is crumbling if his boss calls him into the office for no apparent reason. Why? Because the well-paid executive fears losing his lifestyle, being unable to pay the three mortgages he has, the car, and his kids’ school fees. And he fears this because, unlike the self-employed immigrant taxi driver, he has two major problems:
Therefore, the taxi driver is more antifragile, which essentially means being better prepared for unexpected events, disruptions, and change. The taxi driver is used to earning a lot some days and nothing on others, having good months and less favorable months, and above all, dealing with uncertainty and change. Security and certainty vs. uncertainty and change. But you could work this around in your favour. You could simply accept that there is no greater security or certainty than knowing that life is uncertainty and change. This is why personal growth, remain flexible and alert, a side business or investments, are so important to keep your pants clean. If you look for help in that regard, you can click below and start working.
PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day. PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below. |
Vicente Valencia
Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
Rule 8 of PPPs: Never go around the SPV. That shortcut has lawyers at the other end. I know why agencies do it. The SPV needs to consult the contractor. Then the shareholders. Then the Board. Then the lenders. Then the lawyers. What should take five minutes takes three weeks. So, someone decides to be practical: “Let’s speak directly with the contractor.” Wrong. Look. The contractor builds the project. The SPV owns the promise. The SPV holds the Project Agreement. The SPV carries the...
Someone went on holiday. Nothing particularly unusual about that. Except that this person had to approve an invoice. And without that approval, the dark accountant at the agency did not even know he had to make an important payment. Without the payment, the SPV would not have enough cash to meet its obligations. Yes… pay your debt is really important in these cases. So, a billion dollar project was suddenly exposed to an insolvency risk because one person went on holiday. Fortunately, we had...
After financial close, everyone wants to get moving. Mobilisation plans. Design programmes. Construction schedules. Reporting templates. Hundreds of meetings. And a few parties. But there is one document I would want agreed before almost anything else. The Crisis Management Plan. And I mean agreed. Not another document that’s written for the sake of it and forgotten in a drawer for the duration of the project and that only sees the light in the annual quality audit… No. But something like a...