Bob Mayer - Shit Doesnt Just Happen I: Titanic, Kegworth, Custer, Schoolhouse, Donner, Tulips, Apollo 13

THE GIFT OF FAILURE

(Titanic; Kegworth Plane Crash; Custer; Schoolhouse Explosion; Donner Party; Tulips to Housing Bubble; Apollo 13)

by

Bob Mayer

I use icons in this book to focus on specific parts of the book. They are:

Definitions.

Timeline of each catastrophe.

Asides: When you see the sign below, it means Im giving you bonus information either based on my personal experience during my time in the military and as a Green Beret or information regarding a similar disaster/event/catastrophe.

IT Doesnt Just Happen

I had to get your attention, just like engineers, soldiers, pilots, astronauts, passengers, policemen, firemen, etc. need to get someones attention just before a catastrophe occurs in order to either prevent the event or save lives. And engineers, systems analysts, workers, and managers have to get the attention of others in order to point out cascade events that, if unchecked, will lead to a catastrophe.

Consider the meaning of the phrase sh!t happens. Saying sh!t happens indicates events are random, have no meaning and there is no accountability or responsibility. It indicates such events could just as easily happen again and theres nothing we can do about them.

Bull.

This series is about catastrophes and disasters and tragedies and how to avoid them, mitigate their effects and learn from them. As you will see studying seven significant events, they didnt just happen, and the people and organizations involved werent completely helpless victims. Taking the attitude sh!t happens is potentially fatal for the future. It ignores painful and tragic lessons from the past. If were going to make the deaths and suffering of victims to mean anything, we must learn from them.

The bottom line is we can predict and prevent many catastrophes because almost every one has a man made factor, a cascade event, involved. In other words, we have control over whether sh!t happens. But it means changing a complacent mindset, getting rid of delusional thinking, and viewing the world around us in a different way.

Because sh!t doesnt just happen.

Why write this book?

Because Ive made mistakes.

We all have. And some of us have made mistakes that contributed, either completely or in some percentage, to a no-do-over. This is an event where you cant go back and change the result. There has been an irrevocable event. Often these involve death or permanent injury/wounding. You cant undo those.

Soldiers understand this because the environment in which we operate is full of no-do-overs. Ill discuss why Special Forces are called Masters of Chaos later on, but even as Masters, we only control what we control. The best-trained, best equipped, soldier in the world is still only one piece of the entire picture.

Thats the part we have to focus on; what we have control over. Our lives play out with many events and tragedies that are beyond our control, but in which we have some input, some effect. Thats what this book highlights, showing you catastrophes step by step, and how each step teaches us something.

There arent bad people in these catastrophes (mostly). They might have made some wrong decisions, but we all have, and the value we can place on them is to learn from them. Sometimes, many of the victims were innocent and not responsible, but we must focus on those who are responsible and in charge and made the key decisions. Or didnt make a key decision.

I can look back and have to examine where my part was; where my human error, my lack of focus, my wrong thinking, poor decision-making and ignorance, entered into things. There are things I might not have been able to prevent, but if I dont examine my role, Ill never become better at what I do and a better person. And deep inside, I wonder what I could have prevented.

That is why this book exists.

When I was young I watched the movie No Highway In The Sky starring Jimmy Stewart. Its about an engineer who fears the first jet-engine commercial airliner will crash because of metal fatigue. Hes so convinced hes right, even though everyone else thinks hes wrong, that he retracts the landing gear while the plane is parked on the runway to prevent it from taking off. Of course, by the end of the movie hes proven right.

But of more interest, three years after the movie, the first jet passenger plane, the de Havilland Comet had two fatal crashes. The cause: metal fatigue.

Then I went to West Point and subsequently volunteered for the Special Forces (Green Berets). As Ill describe in the Why Listen To Me section, both of these experiences had a profound effect on the way I view the world around me. Operating in the covert world leads one to have a paranoid perspective where sh!t doesnt just happen, its expected, and we have to deal with it.

Ive written quite a few novels based on my experiences, but also some nonfiction books. The Green Beret Survival Guide is full of not only survival information, but stories about survival events. In a way, this book is an expansion of those types of individual stories to larger catastrophes. Who Dares Wins: Special Operations Strategies for Success is where I apply what I learned and taught in Special Operations to the civilian world. As well see in the following disasters, expertise in areas such as communication, goal-setting, leadership, character, motivation, etc. all play a role.

Finally, my wife (who is terrified of flying) and I became very interested in a television show titled Seconds From Disaster, which aired on National Geographic. Over the seasons it covered just about every plane crash and numerous other disasters. And we noticed a startling commonality. No plane crash just happened. There was always a series of mistakes, miscalculations, negligence and other events leading up to those final seconds and the disaster. Which led us to develop the...

The Rule of 7: no crash happens in isolation or as the result of a single event. It requires a minimum of 7 things to go wrong in order for an airplane to crash. And one of those 7 is always human error. It might not be the primary cause, but it is always a contributing factor.

This book will show you how the Rule of 7 applies not just to plane crashes, but to catastrophes across a spectrum of widely different events, from a ship sinking to a battle, to an emigrant party in the wilderness to tulips and a housing bubble.

What can we learn from 7 catastrophes that is relevant to us and could very well save your life and that of others?

We are more powerful than we believe in the face of catastrophe.

A catastrophe involving humans does not happen in isolation.

In fact, with enough knowledge and preparation, many individuals and organizations can avoid catastrophes altogether, and if caught in one, survive.

Thus, this book is about 7 catastrophes, utilizing the Rule of 7 to show you at least 7 contributing events to each catastrophe and how each one could have been avoided.