Calgary Herald

We must not be afraid to just `make the call'

Fewer people seem to want to take the initiative to make risky decisions

- GEORGE BROOKMAN George H. Brookman is chairman and company ambassador for WCD Ltd.

One cold, dark winter morning, back in the days when people still took pictures with film, I arrived at my shop about half an hour before we opened. There was a car in the parking lot and when I tapped on the window, the man informed me that he was waiting to pick up his pictures.

I responded that I would open the doors so that he would not have to wait. Inside, I asked one of the staff to open the doors to let the customer in and she responded, “We don't open until eight o'clock.” I explained that I knew that, but there was a customer outside and all he wanted to do was to pick up his pictures and put money into our cash register.

Once again, she said, “But we don't open until eight o'clock and if we start letting people in before eight o'clock, there will be all sorts of customers that will want to come in earlier.” She then added, “Haven't you ever been to a bank?”

As those of you who know me would understand, my response was, “Just open the door and believe me, we are not a bank.”

For the rest of the time that I owned that business, we opened at 7:30 a.m. and she was right, all sorts of customers appreciate­d that earlier start.

I was reminded of that story this week. A couple in their 80s, returning from missionary work in Jamaica, were on a plane that arrived two hours early in Toronto. It just so happened that at midnight the rules regarding quarantini­ng were going to change, but these folks arrived at 10 p.m. They had both had their shots, had tested negative and because the rules were changing, they did not go to a hotel but instead went straight to their own home to quarantine. But they were fined $12,000 for not complying with a law that was going to change within two hours of their return. What kind of bureaucrat­ic idiocy is needed to fine elderly missionari­es based on a law that is expiring in two hours?

There are so many illogical decisions made, not always by government, but certainly dominated by bureaucrat­s who insist the rules are the rules and they can never be altered. Fewer people seem to want to take the initiative to just make a logical and reasonable, on-the-spot decision, and that is something we should all be worried about.

As a society, we have become so risk-averse, so afraid to “make the call” that even the simplest of agreements seem to run too many pages long, simply to try to account for every possible event. When you buy a cup of coffee at most fast food locations, the lid will say, “Caution, contents are hot.” Have we really reached this stage of ridiculous­ness, that we need to be told that the cup of coffee we just purchased is likely to be hot?

All of this concerns me because progress involves risk. There is an expression, “Perfection is the enemy of progress,” and that is so very true. Business investment requires risk, government leadership requires risk-taking, getting up in the morning and driving to work requires risk. If we are not able to take risks or if we are so afraid of criticism from wrong decisions, then progress will stop and regression will set in.

The famous Babe Ruth is known to have hit more home runs than any other player up to that time, but what is little known is that he also had more strikeouts than any other player at that time. He was once quoted as saying,

“If you want to hit the most home runs, you have to get up to bat the most times.” We all need to take some chances, we all need to take some risks and if we fail, then we need to fail while trying.

If we are going to move our city and our country forward, we are going to have to take risks, make decisions and never lose faith. The future is bright, but only if we go for it.

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