Have You Been Lost Before

A few years ago, I was in Amboise, France, a small town in the Loire Valley, having drinks with friends in a local pub. We were there on business and were winding down after the workday. It got a bit late, and a friend and I set out to walk back to our hotel. We were probably less than a mile or two from the hotel, but we had to wind through a neighborhood. Keep in mind, this was way before GPS, Uber, smart phones, or even common international cell phones.

By this time, it was really late and it was not long before we realized that we were lost. At night, all of the roads and houses looked very similar. We were in a small town and there were not a lot of people standing around in the wee hours of the morning who we could ask for directions.

I started to freak out a little bit. Trying to figure out which road to take and pondering what to do next. It was late, we were a long way from home and had to be at work the next day. As I started to visibly panic, I realized my friend was calm and composed. I asked him how he could be so calm when we were in such a tough spot.

He answered by asking, “Have you ever been lost before?”

Well, yes, I had.

He asked, “Did you get found?”

Again, I had been found before.

To which my friend replied, “We will get found again.”

A calm came over me. I realized he was right. We were lost, but that eventually works itself out. We were in a very safe area, we just had to work through it.

I have been doing project work for a long time and I have found myself in my fair share of tough spots. Resources are scarce, budgets get tight, the software does not work as expected, or a deliverable takes longer than expected.

Each time these things happened it felt like the project, and my career, were doomed. So far, each time, we worked with the project team, the software vendor, and the customer and found a path forward.

Success is not a straight line up. I try to remember that when things are going great, there may be a stumble coming. And conversely, when things are going bad, there may be a breakthrough coming. The trick is to just keep going and you will get to your goals.

So, if you’re lost, don’t worry, you’ll get found again.

Until next time…we are Advoco, make every minute count.

About Craig: Craig Page is a self-proclaimed “data geek” with nearly 20 years of EAM/maintenance consulting experience. His favorite work is data migrations. He enjoys solving the puzzle to make the data fit and keep the integrity of the information. When Craig isn’t in front of a computer, he is probably running a chainsaw or a tractor. Have a question for Craig? Send him an email!