PhotoCredit: TheWake
I was a child of the 80's and a student of the 90's. TV and music were my two biggest influences. As a child these were Fraggle Rock, The Muppet Show, The Wombles, CHiPs, and Knight Rider. Music was WHAM, Madonna, and George Michael when WHAM stopped Whaming. The only reason I think I have a semblance of musical taste is thanks to the incredible jazz showcased on The Muppet Show.
As a young adult I switched gears. The Spice Girls reigned supreme and quirky drama's stole my heart. Friends was a major influence, obvi, alongside My So Called Life and then Ally McBeal towards the end of that decade.
One of my favorite characters in Ally McBeal was Richard Fish played by Greg Germann. His character, if not the whole show, would likely be cancelled-on-arrival today. Provocative only begins to describe the antics that ensued in weekly installments.
Germann/Fish's catchphrase was "Bygones". He said the word to dismiss people's reaction to his poor behavior. He uttered this frequently, as his behavior frequently warranted it.
Lately I have found myself uttering "Bygones" on a rather frequent basis. Though it is warranted for different reasons. Less to dismiss my behavior, more to dismiss the ghosts of yesterday. To move myself and others to the future. To ensure we don't dwell on the past and instead drive ourselves forward. Wayne Dyer talks about this beautifully in of his now historic seminars. When driving a boat, it is a fool's errand to look at the wake, "The wake is the trail that is left behind."
In our business world we call this the Sunk Cost Fallacy. Interestingly this is also called the Bygones Principle or the Concorde Fallacy. Where we erroneously make decisions for the future based on accounting for past investment.
Yes, our best decisions are made based on the information to hand. Yes, much of that information is a collection of past performance but Dyer tells us plainly that "the past does not determine our future." The riddle here is to determine how to make great decisions for the future without reference to the information at hand (the past).
The thin line between the two lies in what we can extrapolate as learnings from past expenditure. Be that expenditure emotional, effort, career, relationship, or financial. We don't have to keep spending just because we did in the past. We don't have to continue to care just because we did in the past. We don't have to keep grieving just because we have something to grieve. We can learn from that expenditure, alter our behavior, and pick a new path to drive forward from.
Ask yourself, does this serve me or my business? It applies equally to massive investments in business lines and assets that are not performing as it does to relationships, long-standing team members who just are not keeping up anymore, and clothes in your closest that no longer fit and taunt you with your failings.
Bygones. Use this magic word at least three times today and deliberately cut ties to what used to be.