Bringing back the glory days

Good old days is another term for Glory days, times when everything seemed at its best, perfect.

I am reading Arthur Hailey's Hotel and one of the sub-plots in the book is about an old hotel that is about to be taken over by a chain. Much to the owner's disappointment and disbelief, this once great hotel is past its glory days and being bought over by a large chain seems to be the only solution.

If you look around, there are numerous organisations who are still living off on their glory days or trying desperately to go back to a time when everything was fantastic and hunky dory. At some point of time, we have all worked in such places, where plaques of the past held more sway than the promise of the future and we always wondered how things took a turn for the worse. How can an organisation go from 'cream of the crop' to 'don't bother applying there' in just a few years?

Usually, the time it takes to tear something down is much less than the time it takes to create something magnificent. At some point the rot began and wasn't quelled. When standards are lowered, guard rails removed and compromises are made, it doesn't take much time for all of it to compound.

It always seems that regaining lost glory is just a step away, a decision away, like it's just round the corner. Sometimes, the people who precipitated the fall are the same ones who are trying to bring back the glory days.

Reclaiming glory days requires the same amount of effort it took in the first place to become great.