Xu Xiake
The Night They Waited
When you hold everyone up, the cost shows at once and the benefit only the next day
The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake, Chu diary
Because of you, everyone is a step behind and everyone blames you. What one night of waiting for Xu Xiake turned out to mean.
What actually happened?
In the third month of 1637, back on the road after the robbery, Xu and Jingwen slogged a whole day through rain and mud to see off his friend Liu Mingyu, falling again and again, and reached his boat by fishing boat only late at night. The boat had waited for him, and its master was cursed by the other passengers for it. At dawn they passed two boats just robbed, one man killed and one dying. The people on the two boats travelling with them turned and thanked him: had we not waited for you, we would have been here.
The cost is immediate; the benefit comes later
The boatman who waited was cursed by everyone, and nobody could see any good in it. Only the two robbed boats the next morning showed what that night's delay had avoided.
You insisted on one more night of testing and were blamed for the delay. The next day a rival's identical bug made the news.
Whoever waited for you took the blame
The curses landed on the boatman, not on Xu. When your business slows everyone down, the person who covers for you usually takes the heat. Afterwards, say clearly that it was you.
A colleague delayed a submission waiting for your figures and was called out. At the next meeting, say it was your doing.
Thanks afterwards do not prove you were right
They escaped through that night's delay and through luck. Xu recorded only what happened, never that he had foreseen it. One delay turning out well does not make every delay right.
Last time your extra day avoided a trap. Before asking everyone to wait again, say exactly what you are waiting for.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: because of you everyone is a step behind, and right now they all blame you.
Ask first: what does this delay avoid, and what does it cost? Who is taking the blame for me?
Where it goes wrong: using a lucky escape to prove you were right. Had that night passed quietly, Xu would still have been the one who held everyone up.
Lines to keep
Had we not waited for you, we would have met this too.
The boatman, cursed for waiting, now looked rather pleased.
Same situation, other people are asking
I did too well and now it makes me nervous.People have begun asking questions about me. Do I close the door?I hold too much of this now and I can feel them getting uneasy.Once they suspect me, everything I do reads as proof.They've started watching me · all 8 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.