Survival Tips for Your Journey to Success

by Mark S. Fulton

When I was 17, my friend Arthur and I decided to spend our spring break in Daytona Beach, Florida. As a graduating high school senior, I was ready for a taste of independence and adventure––not to mention the chance to party with a bevy of beach babes panting for the privilege of meeting a couple of teenage studs.

Convincing my mother to consent to this pubescent rite of passage was a masterful piece of negotiation and misrepresentation. I assured her that Arthur and I would be paragons of prudence and restraint and that I would return home with nothing that would require medical attention. I can imagine what was going through Mom’s mind, but she let me go anyway.

In order to maximize our vacation time, Arthur thought it would be best to drive straight through from New Jersey to Florida without stopping. That meant making an overnight, 17-hour drive down Route 95. Furthermore, Arthur (with the bravado and stupidity only a 17-year-old male can muster) decided he wanted to do all of the driving.

The trip was a disaster. Space does not permit a full reckoning of the mishaps and misadventures that plagued this foray into adolescent fantasy. From nearly running off the highway while Arthur slept at the wheel, to enduring one of the rainiest weeks in Florida history, to discovering that Arthur and I had the sex appeal of Woody Allen––our spring fling was a flop.

Since my adolescent Florida fiasco, I’ve taken lots of vacations and business trips. While none have equaled the Daytona trek in shear misfortune, many have had their moments of misery.

That’s why I was intrigued when I happened upon a curious little book entitled “The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel”. Written by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht, the book provides helpful advice for handling some of the most unimaginable travel travails. We’re not talking lost luggage and misplaced hotel reservations. Think surviving a hostage situation, a runaway train, a UFO abduction.

As I skimmed through the book, I realized that its advice has applications for people traveling the path to business success, as well.

Not unlike a vacation in Cancun, your career or business objectives can be disrupted by an unexpected bout of circumstantial Montezuma’s Revenge. Despite your best efforts, you can be temporarily sidelined by a temperamental boss, unforeseen customer problems, organizational snafus and other predicaments.

In the book’s foreword, explorer David Concannon lists four lessons he has learned while traveling throughout the world. They are lessons that apply equally well to the thorny challenges that can impair your journey to success.

Lesson #1: The unexpected usually happens. Just when you think everything will go exactly as planned, some nasty little circumstance may pop up and threaten to shipwreck your strategy. When unforeseen events occur:

• Keep your wits about you. Calmly and rationally evaluate the situation and consider all of the factors that contributed to the problem.

• Assess your capabilities. Take stock of the resources available to address the problem and your ability to utilize them.

• Listen to good advice. An objective observer can provide valuable counsel and give perspective to the situation.

• Take reasonable actions. Prioritize possible responses based on their likelihood of producing the best outcome––and then act.

Lesson #2: Accept the things that are beyond your control. Just like rotten weather that ruins your vacation, the climate surrounding a business project can suddenly and uncontrollably change. When you encounter immovable obstacles or immutable circumstances:

• Welcome the challenge. Sometimes the energy that comes from opposition can actually invigorate you and your team.

• Make the best of it. Remember, obstacles can become stepping stones with a little imagination.

• Check your attitude. Henry Ford said, “Think you can. Think you can’t. You’re always right.”

Lesson #3: Always have a contingency plan. It’s better to have an alternate route in mind when you set out on a journey rather than when you discover the road you’re on had been washed out. Before you embark on a course of action:

• Consider other paths to the objective. Think through a second-best option from beginning to end.

• Allow enough resources for a contingency plan. Put some assets in abeyance for emergency use. You can always reallocate them if they go unused.

• Build a trap door. Is there an emergency exit in your plan. Don”t get caught without a lifeboat or a parachute.

Lesson #4: No matter how bad you think things are now, they can always get worse. More than mere pessimism, this is an important lesson that is often learned the hard way. When things have gone badly:

• Keep something in reserve. Try not exhaust your “rainy day fund” just in case there is another storm just over the horizon.

• Don’t let down your guard. Prize fighters are the most vulnerable to a knockout after they have taken their opponent’s best punch.

• Expect worse to come. Just think how pleasantly surprised and relieved you’ll be when it doesn’t.

These lessons would have served me well on that ill-fated odyssey to Florida. Give them some thought for the next leg of your career path or business venture.

Copyright 2001 © Mark S. Fulton