ABSTRACT
Thomas has been living in the same hotel for weeks now. As a special customer, he arranged with the hotel manager to keep the same room. He had also been granted some privileges. For instance, as a very early coffee drinker, he got the right to access the kitchen any time he wanted to help himself. Over time, he had created a new home in his hotel, where, ironically, he was spending more time than at his own place. Thomas’s peers considered him to be one of the smartest guys around. But, being smart was not enough; therefore, he worked as hard as possible to achieve his objectives. He never looked for any excuse for inaction or to explain his failures. Facing the choice between action with high risk of failure and inaction, Thomas would always go for action. He even had a catchphrase to motivate his staff when something went wrong: “The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.”* He thereby encouraged everyone to move on after a failure. As he often asserted: “Real failure is actually ‘not trying’ rather than ‘not succeeding.’”
