A long time ago, there was a situation where a supervisor who didn’t really care what happened to his group and allowed a cash proof system run down to the ground. One of his subordinates, a mere fledging, desperately tried to salvage what was left of the cluegy bookkeeping system. It cost the department extra hours of Overtime B which was a big no-no.

So, the assistant had no other choice but to skip the chain of command and reported the grave issue to her manager. Understanding the plight of the situation, her superior had only one response to the situation – “Let it break. You can’t keep up the wall any longer.”

“WHAT!?” cried the young one. “Picking up the pieces will be an arduous task! It will take hours, even days to reconstruct everything!”

“Yes, but there’s only so much you can hold up. In due time, everything will crash down and you’ll have to give up. Remember the story about the little boy who stuck his finger in the wall to keep the water from leaking? Then another leak sprung? Well, this is the same situation. Trust me on this one. You’ll see what happens after the reconstruction phase. The mistake will never ever happen again. You’ll see what I mean.”

Since then, I’ve been thriving on this concept. It has allowed me to overcome great obstacles I’ve come face-to-face in over a decade.