Achieving the impossible ...

Achieving the Impossible – just ask, and then answer, two questions …

Many years ago, I read a story in Fast Company magazine by Jim Collins – of 'Built to Last' and 'Good to Great' fame – about how to achieve the impossible. At the time he was on a climbing vacation in Yosemite National Park and in the middle of a particular climb he wanted, or needed, to make a traverse* across a rock-face. He was aware at the time of deciding to make the traverse that a) nobody had ever made that traverse before and b) that his capability to make it might not be up to it. He did, however, make several attempts to complete the move.  But all to no avail. 

Defeated, and therefore unable to make the climb to the top, he retreated to his hotel to reflect on his performance and the traverse. In the process of his reflection, he came to recognize a very important fact. In looking at all the ‘impossible’ climbs in the past, they had all been conquered at some later stage. Analysis of these later successes showed they were achieved through greater capability of the climbers, or advances in the technology of climbing equipment, or other ‘new developments’. On this basis, he reasoned that at some stage in the future, his particular ‘impossible’ traverse would also be conquered. All that was necessary was something better than the capability or equipment or something that he had when he failed to make it. He reasoned that all he had to do was work out what would be needed to enable that traverse to be made, acquire it, and then go do it. Needless to say, he did and therein lies an important lesson for achieving the impossible.

Impossibilities are not limited to mountain climbing. Since Industry 1.0 in the late 18th century, impossibilities have been conquered on a regular basis. And now, in the time of Industry 4.0, there is a massive amount of intellectual, physical, and financial resource dedicated to ‘achieving the impossible’. It’s a whole industry in itself. OK, not all of the successes in this two-hundred-and-fifty-year period have been brought about through dedicated, conscious, application of these two questions – what must exist for this change to happen? and, how do I bring about this ‘what’?. Some impossibilities have been overcome through sheer awe-inspiring brilliance of thinking. But many, many others have and that is an important lesson for all of us.

Never, never accept that impossibilities are forever. After all, if that was the case, would we have so many approved, or near approved, versions of vaccines for Covid-19 within a year of its emergence?