Have you Seen Any Managerial Failures?

Forgiveness is something I had problems with in the past. When the Lord mentioned forgiveness, it made me reflect on what I had or had not done in the past to be a good person. I have held grudges and failed to forgive in the past. I wondered how bad I had been and how maybe showing forgiveness could have helped me and others. I never realized that there was a limit to my stubbornness. One person I did not forgive was my mother. I had been kicking myself ever since. It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

“She forgives you, Sam. She knew it was out of stubbornness, and she never took it personally. That might not make you heal from your mistake. But her greeting is just as sweet as your father’s.”

Then her image appeared on the screen. I broke down crying.

God brought me close to his chest. His arms engulfed me.

“It’s okay son. If Moses could carry his people in the desert on his bosom like a nursing infant, I can coddle you as well. That comes from Numbers 11:12,”

It took me a while to gain my composure, but the warmth emanating from the Lord was very soothing. I can now truly feel what people mean when they say they take comfort in the Lord.

“I am sure I am not alone. Everyone has failures at times, right?”

“Correct, Sam. Every leader has had failures. Every person in the Bible has had some failures.”

“It is not just individuals. People and groups make mistakes. Even after everything I did for the Israelites leaving Egypt, what did they do?  They complained. They made the horrible mistake of focusing on themselves and that is what I had to change. I had to take the people through the desert to change their attitude towards me and each other. I had to push the slavery mentality from their collective focus on themselves to focus on each other. They were so bad that at one-point Moses asked for death so he would not have to lead my people anymore (Numbers 11:11-15). My hope was that the next generation would be better and more worthy of entering the Promised Land. Only after I handed down my punishment that the generation would have to stay in the desert did the people show remorse. Isn’t that typical of how we realize we made a mistake after we made the mistake, rather than making the right decision from the beginning.?  I guess so many people might wish for a reset-button dedicated to erasing poor judgement or bad actions from the prior day.”

I wondered if any corporate leader had it so bad that they wished for their own death rather than to lead their people?  It seemed like such a stretch that Moses would want to die because the people were so troublesome.

“Probably not, Sam but unfortunately some people have had the burden of leadership weigh so heavily on themselves that they took their own lives. What a shame. No matter what the situation, that should never be the solution. That is a big mistake. Even when my prophets were despondent (such as Elijah (I Kings 19:3-4), Jonah (Jonah 4:1-3), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:7-18) they talked about leaving this world and their problems behind, but they did not make that ultimate mistake.”

The direction we were taking with the last answer seemed to be going off track, but I was the one firing questions away and the Lord answered them- even if they might have been disjointed questions.

“Sam, what do you think was my first managerial failure Israel, Inc.?”

“Lord, you can’t make a mistake.”

“Sam, my first managerial failure was when I told Adam the rules… and acted like he was a responsible middle manager to tell Eve. Well, that did not work out well for me, Adam, Eve, nor that horrible snake.”

I was getting the feeling that the Lord really did not like snakes then and probably not now.

“Sam, when people have free will… your best laid intentions can go south on you. That is why we need to learn from failures just like we need to learn from successes. In fact, without failures I do not think there can be true leadership. Remember when your son lost the Little League game a couple weeks ago?”

“You watch all of my son’s games?”

“Not all, but some.”

That gave me some hope that the Lord did not have my entire life recorded. But even if he only had 50% recorded, how much of that would appear as outtakes or reflect negatively on me. I couldn’t dwell on the past as I now had the knowledge that my deeds were in fact being recorded. It wasn’t just a nice Sunday school lesson. It was the truth.

“Tell me Sam, when a kid messes up do they quit, or do they keep moving forward?”

“Most try again,” I said.

“And that is exactly what he did.  He did not give up after several bad at bats, he just kept going. One of these days he will get a hit and you will be so proud. That is what you must do. When you stop trying and failing, that is the biggest mistake you can make.”

Up on the screen was a video of my son getting his first hit. I wondered if I missed a game. Then it dawned on me that my son was playing a game today. Of all days, I missed the game where he had his first hit. I am sure he would be so excited to tell me when I finally got home.

I thanked the Lord for showing me the clip. I was so proud. He finally did it. My son got his first hit. I did not want to do the math, but that was his first hit in…, well over 20 at bats. I was not expecting Major League Baseball skills, but he was getting depressed and had just said the other day that he might never get a hit.

“Sam, people must learn from their failures. However, failing should not become a habit. It is failing forward to success. How many successes started just as immediate success- none I tell you. All experiments are attempts to see what fails and from those failures people can learn what works. Even if something works, it is often a temporary patch until new technology arrives that will show the prior efforts were an advancement, but a weak advancement compared with new technologies. I still have a reel-to-reel player and an eight-track player somewhere here in the office. It does not mean that they were bad ideas. They were ideas that represented success for their time but were only steps in the process to achieving true success and capabilities. When it is not time for a product or an idea, no matter how much money and effort is put into it, it will still fail. Once again, Sam, context.”

“So, Lord, if I have to summarize the concept of failure, it can and will happen. However, if we can make it a positive learning experience, we can hopefully not make the same mistakes again. Furthermore, it is okay to have small failures when you are just starting out, but these same mistakes when you are more mature can be devastating because are not expecting the same mistakes from a larger organization.”

Before the Lord could answers I decided to throw in my own Biblical perspective.

“It is like the Israelites in the desert. They failed time after time by rebelling against Moses, Aaron, and you. They kept failing with their various rebellions whether over food, water, the Golden Calf, or the sin of the spies. These were all failures as Israel Inc. was just starting out and you allowed these indiscretions, even though you did punish the rebels. However, one the Israelites conquered the Promised Land you were less tolerant of the failures and that is why they lost their land.”

I was so proud of how I was able to connect the dots using insight from the Bible.

“Way to go Sam. You nailed it. Now you know why I would like you to be my messenger.”