My father has read all the Jack Reacher books. I have read a couple of them for a change of pace. I traditionally don’t read stuff that the average person enjoys. My personal library is full of marketing, management and how to influence people kind of stuff. Unless you are into this genre of books, you traditionally don’t finish too many of them. I could see where books about Christian Grey or wizards could be more for the imagination. I feel, that if I don’t learn something from what I am reading, that its not really worth the time. It’s not to say I couldn’t pick up a move in the bedroom or learn how to cast a proper spell from these books, but I’d rather use my time to study something that would have more application in my life. At the end of the day, I’ll watch the movie…
Back to Jack Reacher and the dwarf they cast to play the mountain of a man. Tom Cruise is a greater actor, but he’s about a foot shorter and 100lbs too light to play the character from the books. The point of this blog is not a lesson on how, regardless of who you are, you too can be someone you are not (Reacher is 6’5″ and 250lbs….Cruise is 5′ 7″ and 147lbs). The core of this blog is about the one constant in all the Reacher books.
Doing the right thing.
Regardless of how hard the decision is and how “painful” it is to make it, Reacher always does the right thing. In life, too few of us do this. Yes, Reacher is a fictional character from a series of books and his actions are not a reflection of someone who has actually made these decisions. So its easy for Lee Child to put him in these situations that enable him to do the right thing. It’s easy to script out what the right thing to do is when you already know where the next chapter is taking the reader. In life, we really don’t have that advantage do we? Yet, that is not an excuse to ignore doing the right thing.
So the question is…what truly is the RIGHT thing to do?
There is a big misconception on what is the right thing to do. Yes, we should always attempt to be a good person, avoid being a d-bag and focus on the greater good. But, we don’t always do that do we? It’s in our DNA to be selfish, look out for número uno and do the thing that brings the least amount of “pain” to ourselves. Doing the right thing, in most minds, means doing what you perceive is the right thing for YOU. The right thing is rarely about you, because we don’t always know what’s good for us.
Unlike an author, you don’t know what the next chapter in your life will bring. How many people, that go through a divorce or a bad breakup, have the clarity to acknowledge that life might be so much better in the next chapter of their life? Yet, they will fight this change to the death because they cannot see beyond the initial pain and strife. The right thing is sometimes something that is done TO YOU and you have very little control of it.
How many employers drag their feet on firing someone who brings down the rest of the group? Nobody enjoys firing people. It’s the least attractive part of my job, but often it is necessary. The pain and the stress of pulling the trigger does not compare to the potential on the other side. You cannot get caught up with the relationship you have with that person, you have to do the right thing by the group. Sometimes, by firing someone, you actually do the right thing for them as we’ll. The right thing is sometimes something you have to do TO SOMEONE.
The biggest challenge is to never put yourself before the greater good of the group or the project. As a leader, this will be one of your biggest challenges. I have worked with and for people over the years who fail miserably with this task. They might be so selfish or pig headed, that they don’t realize that the right thing is for them to make a decision that causes something bad to happen to them. Often, if they are good people deep down, the right thing won’t ruin their life and career. Yet, it will cause them discomfort, pain and probably result in them having to do more to better the situation. I am sure we can all look back on a situation where we had to do this, but we probably haven’t experienced this as often as we deserve. The right thing is sometimes something you have to do TO YOURSELF.
Jack Reacher gets to spend the entire book always knowing what the next chapter brings-We don’t have that advantage. It’s imperative that we keep an open mind and understand that the right course of action may be the hardest. You, and the others in your life or work group, may never understand why these decisions were made. Sometimes a series of wrong things need to occur so that opportunity for the right thing can present itself.
Just try to always do the right thing. Life will give you back what you deserve.
