Joint ventures, as most people know, require us to address the needs and aspirations of the other party as much as those of ourselves. When these coincide, as in the pre-engagement period, all goes well. When they diverge it becomes a question of who gets the flowers. The life of a successful joint venture is significantly determined by how well it is planned and reviewed. The plans must be meticulous, even though both sides know they won’t work out exactly. The reviews must focus on the destination more than the bumps in the road.
Adventurous JVs involve ambitious people. Ambition, AI tells us, combines ‘a drive to achieve challenging goals, a willingness to take calculated risks, a focus on personal and professional growth and a perseverance to overcome obstacles’. Indeed. My own definition is cruder: Kill or be killed. So why do some JVs flourish? Because the ambitions of both – or all – parties are modified to coalesce, to fit together as in a jigsaw puzzle, rather than to grate on each other’s hubris like anthracite cascading down a vertical shaft.
None of us knows Putin enough. Evidence suggests a personality deeply disturbed by some – possibly early life – event that implied systemic failure. Culture determined that was unacceptable. Circumstances dictated ruthless was the only way back to personal admiration. This is all conjecture of course. You may think it somewhat fits, however.
We all know Trump too much, or think we do. The blasé Mar-a-Lago, mischief maker is as focused as a dart to the bullseye. His apparent passion for himself is actually a passion for what other people think about him. Swashbuckling imposition is usually a sign of fear of being forgotten. He should relax. One way or another Trump will never be forgotten.
So who will get the flowers?
Not you or I, I’m afraid. We are bystanders at the roulette wheel waiting to see if it’s red or black that captures the ball. We have a say called voting. It comes between getting the young to school and the old to the doctor, probably replacing lunch. We think about it as we line up to cast our preference – or as we realise it is too late and we’ve missed this round. We often vote what our parents would approve, sometimes the opposite, to establish our independence.
‘My vote doesn’t make any difference’, we say as the escape clause for not working out what we think. That’s partly because we are not taught to analyze our political views, partly to absolve us from any disaster that follows our successful or unsuccessful choice. It’s not true that our vote doesn’t count. It counts because any form of credible democracy demands a view, even if its expression is somewhat muted.
So the answer to who gets the flowers is more in your hands than you think. That is especially true if you believe neither of the current contenders should have them. One of them says the present Ukraine war could have been stopped before it started. So true.
It should give us an incentive to stop the looming WWIII before it starts.
If it does start, we all know where the flowers will be needed.
Good morning
John Bittleston
Don’t write about this one but perhaps instead draw or paint a simple bunch of flowers to set on your desk. Something pretty to look at. A reminder that you have a say in who gets the flowers.
21 Feb 2025
