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You'll ignore the signs
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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 👇
Imagine you are building a hospital. Actually, make it two. Both under PFI contracts, aka, another acronym in the PPP world. One morning, your contractor goes into liquidation. That morning arrived on 15 January 2018. The contractor was Carillion. The hospitals were Royal Liverpool and Midland Metropolitan. Construction stopped. Unfortunately, patients could not be admitted to a PowerPoint explaining the risk allocation. Fortunately, only their taxes were claimed. The projects had to be...
You know those “premium” sofas in New Zealand? The ones that are so premium that are also suddenly 50% off? Wonderful news. Until you wonder what the original price was doing. Was I about to pay for a sofa? Or fund the retailer’s retirement? Or their kids going to Harvard? Now imagine that feeling in a procurement room. Well… I found a case that it’s the perfect example. 1976 General Electric was bidding to build part of PAVE PAWS, a US missile warning radar system. Its original price for the...
A train fails its final test. Normally, you fix the train. In Ottawa, they found another option. They changed the test. Just as Margaret Thatcher when she didn’t like her unemployment numbers… The context. In 2019, the city’s new light rail system was approaching opening day. The final trial was supposed to show it could run reliably before passengers got on board. The first three days exposed serious problems. Testing was paused. This is the point where a sensible person says: “Perhaps we...