263 | AOCP The Preemptive Edge - Gaining a Strategic Advantage by Acting Early and Wisely

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Andy

Hey, everybody, today I want to talk about the things we can do and decisions we can make ahead of time before something becomes an issue. Recently, most of us know about the government shutdown that had recently occurred. This is being recorded, November 24th, so of 2025. So anybody who wasn't aware of it in the US, the government had shut down, which was affecting air traffic because the air traffic controllers, some of them were having difficulty getting to work and some of them were being overworked because the government wasn't funded and they weren't getting paid.

00;00;31;05 - 00;00;47;13

Andy

So I had to travel during that week. And what happened was I was I knew I would be able to get out of my home airport in Phoenix, of course, if the flight gets delayed. I just got home so it wasn't as big of a deal, but if I was going to my destination, I had to connect to get home.

00;00;47;13 - 00;01;10;21

Andy

I couldn't get a direct flight, so I knew already I had to connect through another airport, which was a was another challenge. And of course, the whole network of of flights were being affected. So what I ended up doing was I postponed that trip because my feeling really was that once I get on that plane out of Phoenix, I had no control over when I could get back.

00;01;10;23 - 00;01;32;18

Andy

I knew I had a flight booked to come home and you know, that was scheduled to come home, but I didn't know if that flight was going to be there. And and during the time when I was supposed to return home, there's about 10% of the flights they were expecting to be affected in the US. So there was a high potential that I was I was going to have an issue with my flight getting home.

00;01;32;18 - 00;02;08;08

Andy

So really what I looked at was, you know what decisions can I make today to affect or put myself in a place where I'm not negatively affected by decisions that are out of my control? And so that's what I did. I just rescheduled my my trip to that client and, and, going in the future. But when I looked at, you know, look, talked about this, I thought about other sort of decisions that we make where they are one off things where we can make a choice and look at, you know, what decision can I make today where it's something that's not out of my control, but there's also much of our lives are spent

00;02;08;08 - 00;02;34;01

Andy

dealing with things that have already occurred and where especially there's possibly high stress. And I go back. I recorded an episode way, way, way, way back. It was episode number nine. So this goes back to early in the Art of consulting days, one of the first episodes. So and in that episode, I talk about a lot of stress, especially when your subconscious is working on things as you sleep.

00;02;34;02 - 00;02;50;13

Andy

This is one reason why we wake up at 3:00 or 3 a.m., and we have a hard time going back to bed, is because our subconscious is really working on the issues that are unresolved, and in that episode, I talk about some ways to deal with that. A couple of ways. You know, I recommend going back and listening to it.

00;02;50;13 - 00;03;14;03

Andy

You can hear how young my voice might sound back then, and hopefully it sounds young. But anyways, one of the things is to immediately get up and write down all the things that are that you know are on your mind that are causing stress, and then immediately identify which ones are connected because. And then identify a step that you're going to make today to deal with that.

00;03;14;03 - 00;03;33;22

Andy

One of the approaches to that is because often we can we can do things that will affect multiple areas in our lives. So and, you know, in that episode, I talk about the fact that if we don't do it, it's okay, because tomorrow morning we'll just wake up at 3 a.m. and our subconscious will remind us that we still have an outstanding task to do.

00;03;33;22 - 00;03;58;19

Andy

So it'll our body and our brain will just keep reminding us until we we hopefully ultimately deal with it. But one of the things I wanted to talk about was being more proactive or preemptive on issues, especially when issues become a problem. So when we're notified of a problem that we're experiencing and, you know, we none of us get through life without major problems, it does not happen.

00;03;58;19 - 00;04;18;01

Andy

You know, when we have those moments in our lives where everything is going good and things feel great and we're high, you know, we're on top of the world. Enjoy it. Because that does not happen. All the time. We're always going to have some issue and, you know, some issues are going to pop up at some point in time.

00;04;18;01 - 00;04;35;10

Andy

We all have to deal with it. That's just part of being a human being. And normally those issues will be, you know, I kind of thought of a few different categories. You know, one, of course, is health. You know, when we have either a health issue, we're dealing with or a health scare, you know, those are things it could be us or it could be a close family member.

00;04;35;12 - 00;04;59;11

Andy

But those are things that we're we have to deal with and things we have to look at and do something about. And, you know, we have to do some action towards dealing with that. Another one, of course, is financial. Most of us are going to deal at some point in our lives on a financial issue, either our own financial issues, which most of us will go through at some point, or it'll be a, again, a close family member.

00;04;59;11 - 00;05;15;07

Andy

It'll be a child, a, you know, an adult child. It could be a parent, it could be a lot of different scenarios of people who are close to us, who are going through a financial issue. But typically it's us like we're we're going to go through some financial issue in our lives that we're going to have to deal with another one.

00;05;15;07 - 00;05;35;27

Andy

It might, unfortunately, might be legal. You know, we might have a legal issue that we're trying to deal with. And again, that happens to people. It happens to close relatives. That's another one that, you know, we have to you know, people have to deal with. You know, the fourth one that I had was interpersonal issues. So when we're dealing with interpersonal issues it could be divorce.

00;05;35;27 - 00;05;53;11

Andy

It could be issues with family members. It could be issues with our our children. Our parents could be interpersonal issues at work. Right. We're dealing with those sorts of things. Those are those, again are issues we need to deal with that that come up and we have choices to make where we can ignore them, but they're not going to go away on their own.

00;05;53;14 - 00;06;13;22

Andy

And so we have to be proactive about that preemptive with what the next step is. We're in that situation. We have to deal with it. The last thing I want I have on the list is career. And the interesting thing was I wasn't even going to put career on the list because to me, typically our career is going to somewhat take care of ourselves itself.

00;06;13;24 - 00;06;36;24

Andy

Normally, if we've got a career issue, it's going to lead into a financial issue or a health issue is going to lead into a career issue. Interpersonal issues are going to lead into career issues. Typically, our career issues are often driven out of the other four issues, and we often see that where someone is going through a divorce and their job starts to suffer.

00;06;36;28 - 00;07;03;04

Andy

Many people I've not. I've been close to who who have gone through, unfortunately gone through that their career starts to suffer. And so, you know, that's one reason why when we look at those items, we need to be very proactive and preemptive about what our next decision has. One of the reasons why doing something is important is because we actually feel like we have some level of control over the things we do, rather than sitting back and letting things happen.

00;07;03;09 - 00;07;26;06

Andy

And we want to be in that situation where we're doing something. So if somebody realizes, you know, they have to deal with their health, do something about it and do something about it today or their finances or whatever one of those items are, you know, do something about it. It will not fix itself. And the stress and the in a subsequent issues that come with it will not just go away magically.

00;07;26;06 - 00;07;52;04

Andy

So what do you what can you do about these sorts of situations? The first thing is, of course, put a plan together. You know, even if the plan is just one step, if it's just to do one thing right, and it might be research right. Research, you know what to do in this situation. Today we've got AI that is a tremendous resource when it comes to searching for information, searching for help that might be out there, trying to find information that's there.

00;07;52;06 - 00;08;08;02

Andy

Now, one of the problems with the information is we need to be able to process it. And there's a lot of conflicting information. One issue that I was going through and I won't share the details on it, but there was a lot of conflicting information. I found information that gave me one direction and then other information completely contradicted it.

00;08;08;02 - 00;08;26;18

Andy

And so what I had to do there was I had now had to go find an expert in that area to try to find out what the facts really were. And so the next thing was, is to try to find an expert. So first the first thing was is the the initial, you know, looking for information. Then it was, you know, who can help me, right.

00;08;26;18 - 00;08;47;25

Andy

Who is out there that can help me? It was not easy to find because it was it was an expert in an area. And as I was reaching out to people, those individuals said, no, I don't know anything about that. And I just kept reaching out to people. One of the things is when you start to go down this path is we start to realize that there's a lot of people that handle basic stuff, but there's not a lot of people to handle expertise.

00;08;47;25 - 00;09;17;28

Andy

Right. Very specialized problem solvers, which is one reason why in consulting, typically, if you are an expert in an area, you're you're typically in more demand. You have to build up to that. But you want to find out who can help you. This isn't about just finding people who will listen. Sometimes it's good to get stuff off your chest, but you do want resolution, so, you know, find out who is out there that can actually help you in that same time, it's, you know, what decision can I make now, right, to start to deal with resolving this, this issue.

00;09;18;01 - 00;09;31;06

Andy

One of the big points is the way you got into the problem is not the same way you're going to get out of the problem. My mom used to have a saying or August, she still has a saying, which she doesn't say very often anymore, is it's easier to stay out of trouble than to get out of trouble.

00;09;31;06 - 00;10;00;04

Andy

But when we are in trouble in some area, it's important to not continue to stay in that trouble or to make the trouble worse. This is why we need to slow things down in most cases. Try to think through, get the proper advice, work through our challenges, think it through. And often we don't have that expertise. We, you know, we might have made up, made a wrong choice to get ourselves in the position we're in, but we often don't have the expertise to get out of that problem.

00;10;00;09 - 00;10;17;11

Andy

So we need to find the right people and we need to listen to them. But we also have to do a lot of homework to make sure we're asking the right questions and make sure that the information they're giving us actually makes sense, because we want to make sure that if we are in something that's serious, that we are getting the right advice to get out of it.

00;10;17;15 - 00;10;45;24

Andy

The next thing is, is really don't worry about an obstacle when we're working through something. And if you think of your career as it is right now, you probably faced thousands of little obstacles along the way, some big obstacles along the way. But you faced hundreds, if not thousands of them. Do not worry about the obstacles or someone saying, I don't have that expertise or know that, you know, you track somebody down that might be able to help and you find out they don't work there anymore and you don't know where to find them.

00;10;45;24 - 00;11;06;09

Andy

Don't be worried about that. Keep it up. Be tenacious. Right? Have persistence and just continuing doing those tasks. Continue. Add it every day because this is what that problem needs, what the resolution needs for you to work through it to get to a resolution that's going to work for you. So keep working through it. The resolution might not be perfect.

00;11;06;14 - 00;11;24;01

Andy

It likely is going to be something, especially if it's something that's major. It's probably not something that's ideal, right? Again, if we use the concept of divorce, I know a lot of people who have been through divorce, and it's not an ideal situation. For some people, maybe it is a good thing, but typically there's a lot of cost, there's a lot of pain, there's a lot of time involved, a lot of money.

00;11;24;03 - 00;11;43;03

Andy

So so the point with that, even even if it's something where people look at it as something of as negative, look at it as something that, how do I make this the best situation for me, and what are the things that I can do? Where can I find advice? Where can I find support? Where can I find individuals who can maybe help me predict what's coming next?

00;11;43;05 - 00;11;59;10

Andy

And as we keep moving down that road, we get more and more information, right? You ever you ever take a trip, right? We just push you to a place you've never been to. As we're driving down the road, we're looking in into the future horizon, right? We're driving and we're looking the future horizon. We haven't seen that before.

00;11;59;13 - 00;12;30;14

Andy

But as we're looking, you know, 100 yards down the road, we can see what's coming. Now it becomes apparent to what what's coming up. And every time we take one more step, things become a little more clear and we've gone through it. One of the things with working through and doing more preemptive or proactive sort of decisioning, and the reason why I call it preemptive or proactive, you know, proactive being, you know, making a decision beforehand, preemptive, you know, making decisions that deal with a particular issue.

00;12;30;14 - 00;12;50;05

Andy

So sort of a more of a, of a strategy around something has already taken effect. You know, you're already in, the situation and you're now making decisions that are going to put yourself in a position to be successful. But one of the things is it's this isn't about being vindictive, right? Like, so I use the example of of a divorce.

00;12;50;08 - 00;13;08;04

Andy

And the only reason I do that is because that's one of the, you know, that's a personal decision. It's something that that happens, that interpersonal that affects a lot of people, and it can affect someone even if they're not going through it directly. It can affect individuals. But the decisions we make is not to be vindictive or to be punishing for other people.

00;13;08;04 - 00;13;28;12

Andy

In this, we want to be professional, making decisions that serve us, that give us the result that we're looking for. And when we go through these particular issue, it could be a financial issue. It could be a lot of different situations where, let's say we ran onto some financial difficulties. It's to try to deal with the emotional end of it and learn from it.

00;13;28;16 - 00;13;47;01

Andy

One of the big things I find is, is every time we go through a big challenge, it's an opportunity for us to learn from it, to build a skill set to help us in the future and help us with with future issues. Again, because I said, like, we're not going to get through life without having some challenges and some big challenges.

00;13;47;04 - 00;14;08;26

Andy

And when we look at an individuals who are highly successful, they're making big decisions. And when we think, you know, one scenario, you know, I was talking about was I'm from grew up in Winnipeg, Canada, and there was a company called Canwest Global, and they owned a lot of the TV properties that they owned, like HD, HGTV, the Food Network.

00;14;08;26 - 00;14;34;02

Andy

I think they might have owned Lying Lionsgate Films. I could be wrong with that, but they did own some of the TV, movie studios, a lot of TV properties, and they ran on to some financial difficulties where they ended up having to sell off the company. Now we look at that and we go, okay, well, the CEO who really represented the family that built up this empire, right?

00;14;34;02 - 00;14;50;05

Andy

He's trying to make the decisions to keep this company alive. We kind of look at and go, well, yeah, that's his job. And and we can kind of look at it. Well, this is their family's legacy. This is their this is where their family makes money. This is where their family invested. This is how their their dad built out that business.

00;14;50;06 - 00;15;18;23

Andy

That individual had to work through those challenges. And come up with a try to come up with a plan to to save some of their properties and save some of their financial interests. So, you know, and hopefully you're not negotiating, you know, multi-million dollar bailouts. But there are people who do and you have to learn those skills. So, you know, one of the big things is that as we develop as consultants, we're going to be we're going to be negotiating and working through problems that become bigger and bigger and bigger as our careers advance.

00;15;18;23 - 00;15;43;12

Andy

And so this is where coming up with that ability to work through those starts with the the smaller issues. So as you're going through challenges is build up. That's that skill set. And and work through that and understand that again, people are going through these. And this is something that we we can't avoid in our lives. So so the big thing I think is, you know, really trying to understand the emotional piece of it as well and that the emotions will kick in.

00;15;43;15 - 00;16;00;04

Andy

But but also understand that there are solutions to the issues that we're in. And sometimes they may not be the ideal one. They may be something that we necessarily would choose, but there are solutions for the for the situations that we're in or the, the challenges that we're facing. And there are experts out there that can help us through it.

00;16;00;04 - 00;16;19;05

Andy

So work through that. You're going through it, know that. You know, it's again, it's going to happen. It's something that people go through. It's just part of living. It's part of life. It's part of being an adult. And, these things happen. And the more we're involved with different things in our career, the more advanced our career becomes, the more we're going to be.

00;16;19;05 - 00;16;38;03

Andy

These things are going to happen because we're going to be exposed to more of them from a professional level and also a personal level. There's going to be more challenges that come up and and understand that we have the skills to deal with that. We just have to, you know, find again the path and and trust the path and trust those around us as we work through it and do our research and and our due diligence.

00;16;38;03 - 00;16;56;17

Andy

So anyways, I wanted to share that, especially for anyone who's going through that now, but also anybody who goes through that in the future or if you've gone through that in the past. Really, it's a it's a great learning opportunity, even though, again, we wouldn't wish this on anyone, it does happen. So just keep being great, keeping yourself and keep working through things and just keep staying awesome.