Hindsight is a Thing of Beauty

I’m often asked when I’m interviewed, “Marty, what’s one thing you wish you’d learned earlier”… or the more modern form of that question, which is, “Marty, what would you like to be able to tell your 20-year old self?”

There are any number of life lessons that I could absolutely have used earlier on, and lots of stuff that would have made me a better leader way sooner. But, then again, with the benefit of hindsight and wisdom, I’ve come to realize that the depth and value of any lesson comes from the very fact that it’s hard fought and won.

If you learn by starting in the right place, going through the trial and error, (and, yes, a little of the essential pain), the lessons you learn stay learned… they are indelibly imprinted on your psyche.

So, whenever I’m asked the question, I often wonder (and sometimes I actually say… if I had known something 20 years ago, would I have been mature enough to put it into action? Would I have had the capacity to understand it the way I do now? Would I have even recognized its importance?

This made me realize two very important points:

The first is that, when the student is ready the teacher appears. Where you are at any point in your life makes a difference as to what you’re able to learn and absorb. 

Try re-reading one of your favorite books that you haven’t read in a while. You will see completely different things to what you saw the first time around.

That’s because it isn’t just about the words on the page… a book is a dialogue between the author and the reader. When someone else opens that book at the first page, they’re starting at a completely different point to you.

In the hands of one reader, a book may be uninspiring to the point of boredom… in another reader’s hands, the same book will completely transform the way they view the world.

The second thing I realized is that the lessons are cumulative. As you build a path through your career and life, the choices you make position you for the next set of choices. Even seemingly insignificant choices position you in a more or less favorable position.

And that position is where you look forward from… the choices you find from that point on will either give you better or worse possible outcomes, as a result.

When I made the choice to leave Aurizon to take on the Chief Executive role at CS Energy, I didn’t really know if it was the right decision… the pros and cons were incredibly tight, no matter how I looked at it!

I knew it was an expensive decision, because I left a lot of money on the table at Aurizon in the form of long term performance incentives. The company pretty much screwed me, as I was a good leaver who had created significant long term value…

But now, I know exactly why I made that choice, and why it was absolutely the right one. It opened up the path to doing what I do now. A different decision 10 or 11 years ago, would have taken me down a completely different path, even though I didn’t realize it at the time.

But just take a moment to reflect on this at a micro level. Deciding to do something difficult today will have a huge impact on tomorrow.

Because when the same choice arises tomorrow, you will either feel more confident or less confident about it, based on what you chose to do yesterday.

And as you build greater resilience and more experience, you also build your capacity to go to the next level… Think of it like a video game – my daughter Olivia is big into gaming and gets paid for people to watch her stream when she plays.

I don’t know much about it, but I do know that you have to complete the level you’re on before you can progress to the next level. If you just all of a sudden landed at level 42, you wouldn’t know how or why you were there, and you wouldn’t last very long.

What conclusion can you draw from all of this? Well, if you’re listening to this Moment, it means that I’ve turned up in your life at exactly the right time.