Don't Get In The Ring Unless You Know You Can Win

We pick our fights. Most of the time anyway. Obviously if someone else wants to start a fight with us we punch back.

I described this today as meaning that sometimes we pick a fight with ourselves.

Picture the scene from Fight Club near the end when it is revealed that Tyler Durden is the protagonist's alter ego and we see Ed Norton beating himself up.

That's us.

Sometimes we pick a fight with ourselves to attract attention to the potential for a fight. If others gather round and join in all to the good.

If they don't then we are quite happy to slug away on our own.

We do of course go into battle against our enemies, but our pockets are finite so we pick and choose.

When I was first involved with the old company the guy in charge of the part that became Severn Delta managed to halve turnover during a three year incumbency.

His approach was to charge into the forest firing his machine gun wildly in all directions yelling loudly that he would take 'em all on...

But when the firing stopped, and the smoke settled, he had hit nothing but wood, and had alerted his enemies to his position. So in they came and took him out.

Much better to fire only once. Hit your target and have bullets left for another day.

We cannot fight on every possible front. Our resources don't stretch that far.

So we pick you fights and don't get in the ring unless we know we will win, even when that means a long, slow and patient fight.