What to do with a Dead Horse

Discovering A Better Life
P.O Box 1540, Albany Western Australia 6331
Phone/Fax: (08) 98 418 418
E-mail: abl-alb@omninet.net.au

What to do with a Dead Horse
The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from one generation to the next, says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in modern business, because of the heavy investment factors to be taken into consideration, often other strategies have to be tried with dead horses, including the following: Buying a stronger whip. Changing riders. Threatening the horse with termination. Appointing a committee to study the horse. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired. Change the form so that it reads: "This horse is not dead." Hire outside contractors to ride the dead horse. Harness several dead horses together for increased speed. Donate the dead horse to a recognized charity, thereby deducting its full original cost. Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance. Do a time management study to see if the lighter riders would improve productivity. Declare that a dead horse has lower overhead and therefore performs better. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position. (author unknown) Well friends, we've all done it before - committed a significant amount of time and energy to a particular project (or even a person) only to find that all our effort was to no avail. But too often we find it difficult to cut our losses and move on, so we keep trying and trying, pouring more and more of ourselves into it, all the while taking away resources that could be spent on something more profitable. However, as difficult as it may be at times to do, the Dakota Indians were right - when you find you are riding a dead horse, the only sensible thing to do is to dismount. We have just entered into another New Year (2005), so let me encourage you to take a look at how you're spending your time. If you're "spinning your wheels" and not making any progress, make sure that the horse you're riding is still alive. I hope 2005 will be a very good year for you! Email me or write to me at P.O Box 1540, Albany W.A 6331. Telephone / Fax (08) 98 418 418

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from one generation to the next, says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.

However, in modern business, because of the heavy investment factors to be taken into consideration, often other strategies have to be tried with dead horses, including the following:

Buying a stronger whip.
Changing riders.
Threatening the horse with termination.
Appointing a committee to study the horse.
Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
Change the form so that it reads: "This horse is not dead."
Hire outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
Harness several dead horses together for increased speed.
Donate the dead horse to a recognized charity, thereby deducting its full original cost.
Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
Do a time management study to see if the lighter riders would improve productivity.
Declare that a dead horse has lower overhead and therefore performs better.
Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

(author unknown)

Well friends, we've all done it before - committed a significant amount of time and energy to a particular project (or even a person) only to find that all our effort was to no avail. But too often we find it difficult to cut our losses and move on, so we keep trying and trying, pouring more and more of ourselves into it, all the while taking away resources that could be spent on something more profitable.

However, as difficult as it may be at times to do, the Dakota Indians were right - when you find you are riding a dead horse, the only sensible thing to do is to dismount.

We have just entered into another New Year (2005), so let me encourage you to take a look at how you're spending your time. If you're "spinning your wheels" and not making any progress, make sure that the horse you're riding is still alive.

I hope 2005 will be a very good year for you!

Email me
or write to me at
P.O Box 1540,
Albany W.A 6331.

Telephone / Fax (08) 98 418 418