05 Apr GETTING OFF THE “X”

(photo by Ian Robinson: Beirut late 90’s)

An interesting dialogue between Michele Rigby Assad (Middle East CIA Agent) and Joran Harbinger focused on what life was like as an undercover CIA agent.  Relevance to farming?  There is surprisingly plenty with a healthy imagination.

Michelle goes on to explain about ambush training and how to survive such an event.  The three natural responses are fight, flight or freeze.  Out of the three responses she clearly stated you do not want to freeze.

X does not mark the spot

She denotes the ambush zone as “the X”, the place where you do NOT want to be.  This is the danger zone where the attack is being launched against you.  Whilst you sit on that “X” you are vulnerable, and you are in danger.

If an ambush comes in from a particular direction, you can run like hunted prey in order to survive, or if that is not an option, fight with everything you have got.

Business Rigour

In life and in business we naturally sit on “X” often because we do not know how to move forward.  It is easy to get overwhelmed by the possibilities, the uncertainties or the effort to move.  You simply face decision making paralysis and for simplicity’s sake, you stay on “X” for another day.

Michelle’s CIA training taught her that you do not have to make great leaps to get off “X”, but just make some little decisions in business, or seek external support to move forwards so you do not perish from inactivity.  This philosophy maintains flexibility towards proactive and reactive situations and hence builds rigour and survivability, whatever life throws at your business.