Timing is of essence

Yesterday was a day that put me into some serious reflection of events that happened to me in business in the last several months. Without going into much detail, with the help of a dear friend, junior to me by several years, but with qualities of special focus, Jakob Kegel, I started to contemplate that I needed to reconsider my position at my place of work. We were trying to transform an organisation, but that transformation was not fully subscribed to by key persons. My objective was to build the organisation further to a point that made it more durable and also to a point that would have made it saleable, so as to maximise the value to its owners. Anyway, hard as Jakob and myself tried, we understood that we had come to a flat plain. This is where timing became of essence!

As we learn in martial arts practice and study, our focus should be on opportunity. But knowing there is opportunity is only the first step. Knowing without doing is only a means to an end. The end is when we are capable of knowing and doing. Although I have been studying martial arts of over thirty years, it seems that this essential quality that I can ably apply in the dojo, just did not occur to me in my business environment. Jakob is not a martial artist, even if he is a person with a vast array of knowledge and interests. Yet it was he who enlightened me to apply what I knew - that my time was up and it was time to move on. My channels were then open and on the 1st March I made a swift cut. There was the opportunity. The value of the organisation was at its best height in the circumstances and therefore it was time to sell.

I say yesterday was a day that put me into so much reflection, because yesterday I closed the deal. Martial arts of Japan were skillfully transformed in the Meiji transformation period, into an educational system. This is one subtle lesson. Timing...