Today’s Bedside is a short sober one. Not too many hyperlinks. Focus.
Four years ago, I came across one of the strongest quotes I’ve ever read and somehow I find that quote to guide some of the things I do today. It was a quote by Doug Stamper. Doug was Frank Underwood’s Chief of Staff and everything else in between. Of course, these characters are from the famous House of Cards, the TV show that actually blew Netflix. Back to Doug, he was a former alcoholic who had gone more than 14 years without alcohol. Doug did despicable things in his role as henchman for the devious Underwood, so I did not expect any gem from him, however, read this quote from an AA meeting scene in the movie where he talked about zeros and fear.
“The most important count I do has nothing to do with work. It's the number of days since April 4, 1999. As of this morning, that's 5,185. The bigger that number gets, the more it frightens me, because I know all it takes is one drink to go back to zero. Most people see fear as a weakness. It can be. Sometimes for my job, I have to put fear in other people. I know that's not right. But if I'm honest, like the fourth step asks us to be, I have to be ruthless, because failure is not an option. The same goes for my sobriety. I have to be ruthless with myself. I have to use my fear. It makes me stronger. Like everyone in this room, I can't control who I am. But I can control the zero. Screw the zero”.
Digress A
I know I said this was going to be a short Bedside but what’s a Bedside without a Digress really, so take this. Today’s about a funny tweet from a South African lawyer has one death wish and it’s a serious one: “when I finally die [sic] I want to die early in the morning. I can’t be going to work for no reason that day”. So hilarious. Perhaps, this tells you how most people on the continent feel about work or rather the true state of the economy all across the continent. Maybe it’s not that deep and I’m just overthinking. Either way, hilarious. Again.
Today’s Bedside is all about the zeros. You can spend years building up something and in a twinkle of a second, it’s all gone. You can spend years being faithful, but all it takes is just one indecision for you to be tagged unfaithful; doesn’t matter if it was just once. The clock goes back to zero. Your integrity at work, something you spent years in the trenches building can vanish for just one small mistake. It’s not bad luck, life isn’t being unfair; it’s the zeros. And like Doug said, you control the zeros. No one else does.
I hope you start thinking of the zeros in your life, it’s a painful place to be at when you go back to zero. Let the fear of zeros drive you to remain steadfast and finish till the end. Don’t give in, keep counting the days away from zero.
Always True.
Miracle Roch.