Musings at Altitude

During my military career, I was stunned by how long it took to go from concept to product.  It could have been weapons, satellites, vehicles…it didn’t seem to matter…it seemed like everything took 12-15 years.  When I did my three year assignment at the Pentagon, I found out it wasn’t just products that took that long…it also took a long time for new processes; new organizations to be rolled out; new policies to be implemented.  Many of the things I started the day I walked into the Pentagon were passed over through continuity folders to the next guy that would work on them for 3 more years before passing them on to the guy after that.

Absolutely crazy.

Stuff shouldn’t take that long.

Things being worked on need a conclusion.

But all this changes in a crisis.

During time of war, weapons get conceptualized, built, tested, and deployed in staggeringly short times.

During economic crisis, the decision cycles speed up to the point that things that took years to play around with before could be conceptualized, researched, prototyped and deployed in fractions of the time they would normally take when there was no crisis.

I certainly don’t long for times of war or times of economic crisis.  But I do desperately desire that sense of urgency that comes from a crisis…that impassioned progress against the goal that focuses everyone on getting to that desired and mostly perfect conclusion.

I’ve had that before…projects that needed to get done in an insanely short period of time…cash needed for companies when product didn’t yet exist…payrolls that needed to be made weeks before first revenues were to be received…significantly large bills that needed to be paid with no cash in the accounts and no obvious path where it could come from.  For each of these there was a perfect conclusion…and in each case, that PC was reached.

Adrenaline.  Focus.  Urgency.  Passion.  Mission.

They are all there in these most intense of times.

And I’ve never seen smiles as big as when the project was complete, the funding was received, the receivable was paid weeks to months early…the perfect conclusions.

Intoxicating.

Exhilarating.

That’s the way it should always be.