For New Times Sake

Friday, December 31, 2021

Today is New Year’s Eve. Tonight, nearly every human being everywhere, regardless of nationality will celebrate the beginning of a new year. In many English-speaking parts of the world, it is customary, as the clock strikes midnight, to immediately and collectively start singing the standard, “Auld Lang Syne”. The song dates back over 200 years, to 1780’s Scotland. Originally a poem, widely credited to Robert Burns who wrote it down in 1788, Burn’s own historian though actually credits the work to Scottish poet Allan Ramsey. The song was made a staple of American New Year’s celebrations by band leader Guy Lombardo, who began playing it on his New Year’s variety show at midnight in 1929 and continued to play it each year at 12:00 a.m. for 48 straight years, until his death in 1977. Few of us are unfamiliar with the swaying crescendo of the final lines of the song’s refrain:

“For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we'll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.”

Auld Lang Syne, literally translates to “Old Long Since” and, because we don’t ordinarily go around saying things like “old long since,” in the truest context of the lyrics, Auld Lang Syne, would today, be a bit like saying, “for old times sake.” In either sense, the song is more a celebration or remembrance of things past than things to come which, as I contemplated the flashing 2022 which followed the just descended crystal, Waterford ball, seemed immediately odd to me. At the very moment our eyes should be fixed on the future, here we are singing a melancholy tune about the past. But isn’t that a lot like us? As a species, we don’t much care for change. As the Earth spins headlong in orbit around the Sun, most would seemingly be content for it to stop and spin in place.?

But there is no winning in that. The winning is instead found by those who see each ball drop as an opportunity to, as the traditional companion tune goes, to, “make a brand-new start of it.”

And that’s the point for the week.?

Those who achieve most in life are those who look forward most in life. There is almost nothing to be gained from looking backwards. Nothing that happened even one moment before can be undone. All that remains under our influence is that which lies in front of us. Spending time pining for what came before is waste; especially so in moments when we are standing on the doorstep of anything of great significance.?

Imagine receiving an invite to a life altering event, only to pause at its entrance to reminisce about the good old days … before life was, well, about to be good. That seems preposterous on its face. Not because reminiscing is a bad thing necessarily, but because to do so in that moment would be so inappropriate and unthinkable. Because those who are remembered for grabbing the golden ring are those who actually grab it, not those who wish they were someplace in their past when the moment of grabbing arrives.?

True leaders are forward-thinking ring grabbers and diem carpers. They don’t dilly dally hours and hours away each month in business operations meetings, backward looking P&L reviews and other utter misuses of time spent reviewing history for the purpose of making decisions which impact the lives of others one month or one quarter at a time. Instead, they spend a significant portion of each day engaged in thinking alone and with others about the future, about a destination where, once achieved, the lives of every person in the business is improved. To them, the past is not something to long for, but something to be moved on from and never repeated again.

People willingly follow forward thinking leaders. It’s a trait that’s nearly as important as trust. See, people want to follow men and women who they believe have both the vision and competency to transform … to create something better than what exists today. That’s what people want to be a part of. And it’s why they flock to forward-thinking leaders. No one wants to sit around all day talking amongst themselves about things that have already happened – especially when those sessions include heaping helpings of desk-pounding, negativity, and unconstructive criticism. They do, on the other hand, want to be involved in efforts to imagine and build, together with others, a future bigger than themselves, a brand new start of it, where things are better for them, their customers and their stakeholders. And they want to work for people who do things for new times sake and for the betterment of those who follow them.

So, sing a new song when the ball drops.

And win.

Happy New Year!

For more like this, please visit?https://andwin.net

For over two decades in big companies you’ve surely heard of, Phillip Kane proved that you don’t have to choose between winning and treating others with kindness. He wrote a book about it, soon to be released by John Hunt Publishing, London. To pre-order your very own copy from Target.com, please click HERE.