Within the last few days I've seen a billboard and a television ad for a specific project that I design and pushed through to become reality a decade ago. It was both highly gratifying and sad. For this particular program to succeed it had to be turned over to others to run and credit had to be shifted to the egos in another structure so that it could be institutionalized and live on.
So far there are just four such programs and systems that were designed and integrated well enough to out live my ego's presence and still function and provide for the welfare of those for which they were intended. They are like my children in a professional sense.
Sad is that there are a dozen or more programs that did not lived over the years. Many I killed off myself to obtain their resources to use elsewhere. But most were simply murdered by arrogance, stupidity, ignorance, or willfulness of others. Long ago I started a garden in my backyard called the Saint Jude Garden Of Lost Causes. Here I buried each project, program, or system in turn as it was destroyed. In fact many of those who are buried there acted as preparation for those not there at all.
My joy is that there are so many NOT buried there. Long may they function.
4 comments:
"There is no limit to what one can accomplish provided that someone else can take credit."
Or some such. Congratulations on having the successes you did.
The magic word I learned early enough to make a difference was "institutionalization".
"highly gratifying and sad" -- that IS a proper response to the success and independence of a child.
That reminds me of an old saying:
Give your children freedom and the wings to fly away and then let them go. If they never return, then hunt them down and kill them.
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