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~ Richard Eyre, Director
HOW 2 MINUTES AND 20 SECONDS CAN DESTROY A LIFE
W
hile the first three disciplines gate an
UNSCRIPTED
promised land,
consequential thought is its lock.
In 2012, an Arizona medical-device CFO making $200,000 a year thought it
would be cute to video himself berating a Chick-fil-A employee at a drive-
through window.
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The two-minute-and-twenty-second YouTube video went
viral, stoking a national firestorm, which resulted in his immediate job
termination. Besides his job, the smug man reportedly lost over $2 million in
stock options and, as of March 2015, is now unemployed and on food stamps.
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One event can kill a process.
A career. A marriage. A life.
The unfortunate reality of the event/process dichotomy mentioned in
Chapter 18 is
UNSCRIPTED
’s final discipline:
consequential-thought—the
foresight into the consequences of our actions and knowing that our choices are
unfairly weighted toward the bad ones.
Actually, “unfair” is understated—it’s ridiculously uneven.
Good choices float like feathers while the poor ones sink like anchors. You
could take two years to build your dream house, and all it takes is one carelessly
placed cigar to burn it down. Process builds the events (I finally got my CFO
dream job!) while an event (Let’s berate this eight-dollar-per-hour employee!)
rips the process apart.
Think about that for a minute.
Consequence inequity is where one impulsive decision (or mistake) has the
staggering power to invalidate thousands of well-planned ones.
But the reverse
does not apply.
One positive action cannot erase thousands of negative ones.
Eating broccoli for one day won’t help me lose fifty pounds. If this incongruity is
unclear, let me explain.
I started accumulating a lot of value-vouchers in my late twenties. I was
single, and … let’s just say … engaging in some risky “YOLO” behavior. One of
those behaviors was street racing. Nothing was more enjoyable than smoking a
fart-can Honda in my nitrous-laced Viper. One evening after a few drinks
(another bad decision), I thought it would be cool to race some tricked-out
Mustang. The problem here, besides being young and stupid, was my
unfamiliarity with my newly modified Viper. I over-throttled and spun into
oncoming traffic. The oncoming traffic avoided my stupidity, but the innocent
palm tree beyond the embankment didn’t. Within seconds, my empty passenger
seat was now the trunk of a date palm. Luckily, I survived unharmed.
You see, one reckless decision can ruin your life in an instant. Not just for
you, but for innocent bystanders. I could have killed someone and been
convicted of negligent homicide, spending the rest of my days in prison. I could
have permanently injured myself.
One judgment lapse could have eradicated
every good decision I made in my lifetime.
Consequence-inequity is most visibly noted with professional athletes, some
accidental, some incidental. Bill Buckner’s successful baseball career has been
overshadowed and mired by one game: He erred in the World Series. Thousands
of at bats erased by one play. Another story, Pete Rose, banned from betting on
baseball. Lance Armstrong, doping the Tour de France. Tiger Woods, crashing
his Lincoln amidst a marital-infidelity cover-up. In each instance, an event
spanning only minutes causes a lifetime of process to unravel, killing careers,
relationships, and reputations. You can never, EVER underestimate the potential
negative weight of one decision.
Consequence-inequity also plays a role with the relationships we choose.
Every person who enters your social circle is a potential road. This road could be
a road to ruin, or a road to winning. Question is, can you identify and remove
potential people who are liabilities to your goals? Will you allow the negative
inertia of someone take you to dark places? Or will you be a proactive CEO of
your choices?
When I was sixteen-years old, I had an odd friend named Dave. Dave’s
oddity was he occasionally glossed over into a murderous expression, scaring the
crap out of me. One day while I was at his house, he cursed at his mother, calling
her “a dickless c*nt.” I shit you not. His mother didn’t discipline him; she simply
shook her head and walked away. My eyes gaped like saucers. Later that same
day, Dave caught a rat in the backyard and burned it alive on a leaf pyre. I
objected in spirit but kept quiet, not wanting to be Dave’s next burn victim. After
the sick deed, I lied an excuse and left.
It was the last time I saw Dave. Why?
Because I decided it would be the last
time.
Even in my youth, I sensed something off. Disastrous. My intuition knew I
didn’t want to hitch a friendship to this guy. And sure enough, I was right. I read
about Dave in the newspaper some years later: he murdered a police officer.
When I was eighteen, déjà vu. Rick was another oddball friend I had. A
charismatic guy, Rick was a late-eighties version of Justin Bieber. Young girls
swooned over him, making for a fabulous wingman at the under-twenty-one
clubs. Like Dave, Rick also rolled with a dark and vacant look in his eyes that
clued something was amiss.
Spoiled by his parents, Rick was birthday gifted a brand-new Trans Am GTA,
an incredibly fast (and expensive) car for the period. Every so often, I’d find
myself stuffed in the backseat of Rick’s TA on the way to parties or whatever else
teenagers muddy their feet with. Anytime we hit the freeway, Rick routinely
sped, reaching speeds of over a hundred miles per hour. Each time, I’d beg him
to “take it easy,” and each time, my pleas deafened to the stereo sounds of Run-
D.M.C. One night, during one of his 110-miles-per-hour jaunts, he almost lost
control and struck a highway divider. I still feel the adrenaline from that night.
While fearfully praying in the backseat of his car, it clicked. I decided that I
would not put myself in this uncontrollable, life-threatening situation ever again.
It was the last time I saw Rick, and while I don’t know if he made murder
headlines, I’m glad I wasn’t there to find out. You see, you simply can’t win life’s
game tethered to uncontrollable liabilities. Wipe them from your balance sheet
so you have a chance to win.
Negative influences or destructive people, no matter what their label (family, fraternity
brother, coworker) shouldn't carry exemptions to excommunication.
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