https://www.good.is/7-lessons-old-people-talk-about-that-are-life-hacks-for-any-age-ex1
Sources (and why they matter)
Before the argument, the provenance. This article draws on three bodies of work, each grounded in real SAP transformation experience. You do not need to have read them. The key ideas are stated here in plain language.
- FIT 4 SAP – Proof of Concept (White Paper)
Why it matters:
This paper explains why most large transformations fail structurally, not technically. The failure pattern is consistent: organisations commit before they have seen how reality behaves.
Key idea, in its own words:
“See where it breaks before you sign.”
This is not a slogan. It is a sequencing rule. Learn first, commit second.
- Make FIT Your Purpose
Why it matters:
This book distils decades of SAP delivery into one governing principle: survival precedes optimisation. Programmes exist to protect the business, not to impress steering committees.
Key idea, in its own words:
“Always have enough money in the bank.”
Every design choice, governance decision, and scope discussion ultimately serves this rule.
- Death by Spreadsheet (SAP SOAP)
Why it matters:
A fictional narrative built from real project patterns. It shows how capable, well-intentioned people unintentionally create failure when pressure, politics, and silence replace clarity.
Key idea, in its own words:
“Silence is lethal.”
Not because people are malicious, but because truth delayed becomes damage.
Executive Summary
Most transformations do not fail because leaders make bad decisions.
They fail because leaders make good decisions too late.
The seven statements below are often treated as life advice. Reordered correctly, they form a decision discipline that explains:
- why risk stays hidden
- why people burn out
- why arguments multiply
- why lessons are learned when they are no longer useful
This is not a motivational piece.
It is about decision sequencing under pressure.
The Seven Statements (in the order that actually works)
1. “When you’re worried about what other people are thinking about you, keep in mind that they aren’t.”
This is not psychology. It is risk management.
In Death by Spreadsheet, the project does not fail because people lack skill.
It fails because people manage perception before truth.
Issues are softened.
Dependencies are postponed.
Uncomfortable facts are deferred.
The result is not harmony. It is silence.
As the book states plainly:
“Silence is lethal.”
When fear governs communication, evidence stops travelling.
Risk does not disappear. It accumulates invisibly.
2. “You have two lives to live: the second begins when you realize you only have one.”
This is where urgency becomes real, and where burnout enters the picture.
In Death by Spreadsheet, the protagonist, Alex, keeps going long after the system is signalling distress.
Late nights. Quiet fixes. Personal exhaustion framed as professionalism.
Burnout is not caused by pressure alone.
It is caused when urgency is deferred too long and then arrives all at once.
This is exactly why the FIT 4 SAP paper insists:
“See where it breaks before you sign.”
Early truth protects people as much as it protects programmes.
3. “It’s never the wrong time to do the right thing.”
Doing the right thing early rarely feels comfortable.
In the SAP SOAP story, the right thing would have been:
- naming governance gaps sooner
- stopping the programme to re-establish clarity
- challenging assumptions before contracts locked them in
Instead, integrity is postponed in the name of momentum.
The cost is not just financial.
It is human exhaustion disguised as commitment.
Right action delayed becomes burnout.
4. “It’s easier to STAY out of trouble than GET out of trouble.”
This is the economic centre of the argument.
From Make FIT Your Purpose:
“Always have enough money in the bank.”
Late discovery drains cash through:
- rework
- extended timelines
- overtime
- morale erosion
Early discovery prevents these costs from materialising.
Prevention is not overhead.
It is liquidity protection.
5. “Whenever it feels like an argument is brewing, ask yourself, is this the hill I want to die on?”
This is where Death by Spreadsheet becomes uncomfortably familiar.
The book is full of brewing arguments:
- between IT and business
- between delivery and governance
- between what the system shows and what people expect
Most of these arguments are avoided rather than resolved.
Avoided arguments do not disappear.
They multiply quietly until they collide at go-live.
This is why FIT constrains scope and forces decisions early.
You cannot fight every battle.
But you must fight the right one.
6. “Be nice to everybody you meet on the way up the ladder. You’ll see the same faces on the way down.”
This is not etiquette. It is governance realism.
In SAP SOAP, the tension between Alex and Claire is not personal.
It is structural.
Information is filtered.
Escalation replaces conversation.
Power dynamics shape which truths surface.
When trust erodes, people stop speaking openly.
And when that happens, clarity collapses.
Organisations do not fail because of conflict.
They fail because conflict is suppressed until it becomes destructive.
7. “The windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason.”
This is where structure replaces regret.
The Fast Implementation Track exists for this reason. Its five pillars:
- Focus
- Communicate
- Simplify
- Commit
- Educate
are not a methodology for speed. They are a discipline for moving forward without dragging unresolved past decisions.
The pillars ensure that lessons are extracted once, documented, and then released.
Or, as the FIT 4 SAP logic would put it:
“See where it breaks before you sign.”
Learn early.
Commit cleanly.
Move forward deliberately.
What This Means for the Boardroom
Reordered correctly, these seven statements describe one operating loop:
- Remove fear
- Prevent burnout
- Anchor integrity
- Protect cash flow
- Force the right arguments
- Preserve trust
- Move forward with structure
This is not culture work.
It is governance under pressure.
Or, stated plainly:
Transformations don’t fail because people don’t care.
They fail because truth arrives too late and people pay the price.
That is the quiet logic behind these seven old truths.