Nothing Is Over... Until It’s Over

Welcome to the 138th edition of “In Touch”. As always, I would love to continue the conversation so please hit reply and let me know what you think.

Story of the Week: “Nothing Is Over... Until It’s Over”

Last week, I took my 13-year-old son Rolando to the pub to watch Leeds United play away to AFC Bournemouth. It was a late kick-off, 10pm Cyprus time, and, by the 80th minute, we were well past Rolando’s bedtime. The score was 1–1 and the tension was building in the way only football can create. Then, in the 85th minute, Bournemouth scored. Rolando’s head was already resting on the table, his eyes fighting to stay open, so I looked at him, then at the screen, and said, “Let’s go.”

Leeds are in the relegation fight, where goal difference matters more than most people realise. A 2–1 defeat is one thing, but a 3–1 scoreline can define a season when points are tight and positions are decided on fine margins. As I pulled out of the parking spot, I checked the score one more time, just in case. It now read 3–1. That one hurt more than expected.

I carried Rolando to bed and, almost out of habit rather than hope, I checked the score again. This time it read 2–2! I looked at it twice to make sure I was not misreading it. VAR had ruled out Bournemouth’s third goal and, with the very last kick of the game, Leeds had equalised. I had left the pub thinking that the game was over and, by the time I arrived home a few minutes later, it had changed in Leeds’ favour.

It made me think about how often we do this in life and in business. We decide, quietly and internally, that something is finished before it actually is. We leave in the 85th minute. A deal that looks like it is slipping away, a conversation that feels like it has run its course, a project that seems to be heading in the wrong direction, or even a personal goal that no longer feels within reach. A situation may still be ongoing but we have already written the ending.

Patience is not a passive quality. It is the discipline to stay in the game long enough to see what the final outcome is. It is the ability to hold your position when the outcome is still forming, rather than rushing to conclude it. Because more often than we might think, the result can change, even after we believe it has already been decided.

So before you decide how the story ends, make sure it has actually finished.

Words of Wisdom

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” Dale Carnegie

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Thomas Edison

A Question to Ponder, dear friend.

Where in your life or business have you already decided the ending… before the final whistle has blown?