Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
You'll ignore the signs
|
It’s one of those images that were hidden. They remained unnoticed to me until two and a half years ago… when my child was born. Cigarette butts. You see them on the floor on every street, on every public square, on every children playground, in Spain. Despite signals. Despite campaigns by the government. Despite science. Despite basic education. Despite the ability to read the “smoking kills” of every package. People are attached to old habits despite they know they are bad. No matter what you try to persuade, they won’t change. They are doomed. They are condemned. The same happens in other aspects of life, not just that unhealthy habit. Getting attached to toxic couple. Getting attached to toxic jobs. Getting attached to poisonous pay checks. Never looking for a way out… That is evident many times. You have the signs. The information. The models. And still… you won’t use that way out. Don’t believe me? Here you are a sign. ​Even you can make money in real estate. ​ 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 👇
Outcomes vs processes. This is the never-ending story of the project manager in any major infrastructure project. What to do. What to prioritise. Where to push. Where to let go. What matters. What is noise dressed up as “governance”. Well… A few days ago I had a discussion with one of my clients. I explained my views. Then, after the call, I sent him a message. WhatsApp. Yes. Not a 35-page PowerPoint. Not a colour-coded framework. Not a “strategic alignment deck” with triangles, arrows and...
Close to Pointe-Claire. Montreal, Canada. Circa 2011. A pen flies across the meeting room. Not metaphorically. A real pen. From the other side of the table. The guy receiving the missile activates his very sophisticated kung fu reflexes and leans to one side. Impact avoided. Silence. Everyone in the room freezes. Then he says: “Don’t get angry. If we don’t solve this now, things are going to get pretty bad for all of us. And in the blame game, nobody wins.” The meeting goes on. No more flying...
There are big, monumental, screw-ups…. Or “cagadas”. And then there are cagadas so big that someone should build a monument to them. The kind that doesn’t just destroy a project. It changes an industry. I’m thinking now about that traffic model that cost a traffic advisor millions and millions because its forecasts were more optimistic than Putin’s three days “special military operation” in Ukraine. That mistake changed the way PPPs with traffic risk were viewed. Contractually. Financially....