The Door To Change Swings On Small Hinges

The door to change swings on small hinges. That's what my grandmother used to tell me when I was too anxious for something to happen. Her parents crossed the plains to the Rocky Mountains in a covered wagon; one step at a time. It took months. One small change at a time. Some days the horizon looked the same as it did the day before. Eventually they made it and saw big change when they finally made their way to the Great Basin of the Rocky Mountains. The door to change swings on small hinges.

I think about that statement now, more than ever. I think about economic bubbles. Why do they exist? People want things to happen faster than the economic environment is prepared for them. Take the real estate collapse for example. Many people wanted homes. In many cases more house than they could really afford, or than they needed. This created paper wealth for other people in the form of mortgages. But not enough wealth. Real Estate hedge fund managers saw the opportunity to leverage, already leveraged mortgage paper to generate "wealth". Lots of it. More than they really needed. Then there was a failure, and another and now we have an economic recession we think we might be getting out of. Or maybe not. Time will tell.

Our society seems to have become an "I want it all now" society; at the expense of what? Banks? Bond Holders? Stockholders? Neighbors? Taxpayers? What happened to the idea of frugality? What happened to the idea of an honest day's work for an honest day's pay?

I have come to the conclusion that if you try to make it happen faster than the natural process will allow, someone will nearly always suffer. There are no shortcuts. A thoughtful disciplined approach will get you where you want to be. Patience must be applied and developed. This enables one to see the pitfalls and circumvent them. On the other hand that does not excuse a lack of progress, growth and development either.

The same is true of investigations. When conducting an investigation, there is nearly always a time line. A target due date. The nature of business dictates such. On the other hand, the quality and depth of the investigation is an exercise of executing proven methods with discipline. This may be painful at first. Over time, investigators get better and better at finding Root Cause and applying the appropriate counter measures. It all of a sudden seems to get easier.

I remember a couple of years ago when I was hammering through investigation after investigation. I usually had 3 or 4 going at the same time. At one time I had 8 investigations I was conducting. It was a grueling time for me, but I kept at it and I stayed true to the process. Then something happened. I realized one day that investigations in general got easier. Upon deeper thought and consideration I realized that I reached a step change in my skill and ability. However, it didn't just happen. It took a lot of little activities repeated consistently time and time again.

In church not long ago, a woman trained in classical performance of the violin, performed a solo. It was powerful and had great feeling. Everyone in the congregation was visibly moved, including myself. I was astounded at the technique demonstrated. When she was through, she sat down and the speaker got up. He thanked the violinist and then made a statement that has since stuck with me. He said, "I'm sure most people don't appreciate the THOUSANDS OF HOURS that went into being able to play such a moving piece for those few moments.

Money and finance, business, having a nicer home or nicer car, conducting investigations and yes, even playing the violin, and doing any of them well, require practice, patience and diligence as the skills and behaviors for success are developed.


In the late seventies, famed actress Shirley MacLaine was asked in an interview at the height of her career, "To what do you attribute your overnight success?" She responded that the overnight success she was enjoying took her 25 years to develop.

The Door To Change Swings on Small Hinges.