99% Preparation

Some ideas fit in a headline. 99% Preparation is one of them. A number, a line, and a whole lesson hiding behind it.

Strip away the number and the idea is this: life punishes vagueness. A figure forces you to say exactly how much, exactly when, exactly who. Once you have said it, the work is half done, because the argument is now with reality and not with your mood.

Strip it to the floor and you find an old instruction: look carefully, judge slowly, act decently. The new name exists because the old instruction keeps being forgotten.

The kirana shop opens at eight sharp, festival or fever. Ask the owner his secret and he will point at the shutter, not at his willpower. Systems outlast moods.

Time is the one currency the Reserve Bank does not print more of. The idea has done its job if, the next time it happens to you, you smile before you react.