Little Mistakes

[Wondering Beard]

Fron the second to last DTI Quip by John Farnam:

26 Dec 14

"Only the mediocre are 'always at their best.'"

Jean Giraudoux

Professional golfers, NFL head coaches, criminal defense attorneys, and
seasoned Operators all unite in this advice:

"It's never the 'great shots' that save you. It's always the 'little
mistakes' that kill you!"

"Hail-Mary" passes, the smashingly clever comeback during
cross-examination, and the occasional hole-in-one during the golf tournament unfailingly
garner the attention of the media, as they talk endlessly about the "play of
the day, " et al.

Yet, those glamorous high-profile events, spectacular as they may be,
rarely make any difference in the final outcome!

The reason is that they cannot be produced on demand! Professional
golfers probably have more holes-in-one than the rest of us, but even they cannot
produce them on demand. Not even close! The vast majority of hail-Mary
passes are incomplete. And, ingeniously cunning dialogue during
cross-examination is largely confined to movies!

The world, made up mostly of the shallow and self-centered, will always be
attracted to replays of the "play-of-the-day," but, in practical terms, as
noted, they are largely irrelevant!

What does drastically affect final outcomes is "little mistakes.' When
they aren't made, you'll have an insurmountable advantage over your
opponent. When they are, all the episodic "great shots" in the would won't save
you!

What loses football games are turnovers, poor communication, and
penalties. What loses golf tournaments is misjudging distances and wind, selecting
the wrong club, lack of concentration. What loses cases in court is lack
of preparation, misjudging your opponent, and asking one question too many!

And, in gun-fighting, it is not the spectacular feat of accuracy that wins
the day, not the amazingly difficult shot you're able to make.

Rather, it is the easy shot that you miss. That is what gets you killed!

Other "little mistakes:"

(1) Missing "danger signs" (pre-assaultive behavior)
(2) Mumbled, unpersuasive, and indecipherable verbal commands
(3) Inability to separate the significant from the insignificant
(4) Taking a bad position
(5) Paralytic indecision
(6) Panicking and shooting too fast
(7) Concentration-destroying unintentional discharges
(8) Failing to move
(9) Failing to take advantage of available cover
(10) Relaxing too soon

The foregoing list is, of course, not all-inclusive.

Nevertheless, the point here is the one I do my best to make with my
students:

We're going to spend our time on the shooting range and in the classroom
working diligently to minimize all the "little mistakes."

By contrast, we're going to worry little about "great shots." They will
take care of themselves!

When, for the first and only time, Napoleon met Czar Alexander in the City
of Tilsit in Russia in 1807, Napoleon pointed to a badly-scared member of
his vaunted Imperial Guard and said to the Czar, "What do you think of a man
who can endure such wounds?" The Czar cleverly responded, "And, what do
you think men who can inflict them?"

The Guardsman himself, interrupting both heads of state, volunteered, "They
're all dead!"

Czar and Napoleon quickly changed the subject!

[ToddG]

Needs more exclamation marks.!

[Al T.]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice find, BTW!

!!!!!!!!!!!

[Totem Polar]

Hmmm. I can dig it.