There have been several times that I have had to use a wrench to get myself out of trouble from fixing a flat tire to doing emergency plumbing repairs and things have not always worked out. In my desire to do the job properly like making sure the tires don’t fall off, just one more turn for good measure has ended up with a loose thread or a fractured bolt. Likewise, in trying to get that last drip of water to stop, I just couldn’t resist tightening the pipes just a little more and ended up with a flood.

I keep on telling myself that I should learn from all my disastrous experience and leave things alone that are already good enough. The challenge is knowing when to stop before you push things over the point of no return much like the straw that broke the camel’s back. Well not many people have actually seen a camel and while I have, I certainly have never seen a camel with a broken back. The reason why you don’t see camels with a broken back is that they are much too smart to do something that they know will break their back. Their fail safe system is that if the load is too heavy they just refuse to move.

What is the root cause of going for one turn too many? In trying to relate this to a business or a career there are three basic causes: ignorance from knowing when is enough, insecurity from not having enough and greed from never having enough. Sometimes we do certain things because we just did not know any better. A lot of people realize that in trying to get the nuts off a flat tire, having an extra length of pipe to give you a longer moment arm will make the job much easier. However, when putting the tire back and tightening the nut with the additional leverage provided by the pipe, it is easy to overdo it without even realizing it.

Not knowing when to shut up or when to speak up could lead to problems. Not knowing enough about the job, the people, the organization and the customers and just keeping on pushing things can have negative results. While it is good to challenge people, a challenge that is considered unattainable by the people tasked to accomplish it will only serve to demoralize. The limitations of people such as their education, training and physical abilities need to be taken into consideration. This should be coupled with knowing the leadership, financial, technical and market capabilities of the organization. Balance how much you turn the screws with the resources and capability of the people and organization.

Insecurity is when you just keep on turning the wrench because you feel that it is not tight or good enough. This happens to us in the workplace. We literally work ourselves to death because we are insecure about losing our jobs if we don’t work hard enough or long enough. By the time you realize that you had half a turn too much, it is too late, the heart attack or stroke you get from the pressure and anxiety may be your last. Even in cases where the pressure does not come from the boss, but from the individual himself who wants to be perfect or has become obsessed, the end result could be the same. Getting 99% and being able to do it again next week is certainly much better than getting 100% once and ending it there.

Greed is when everything is never enough. We just want to keep on pushing our subordinates even if they have already done an excellent job, just because we want more of everything. The danger here is that we push our best performers the hardest because they find ways to deliver the results but even the best people have their breaking point. We have to remember that the best performers are also the most mobile and sought after people by other organizations and if we keep on pushing we could just end up pushing them out the door. On the other hand, we have labor unions that keep on demanding for more and more things and only realize that they have made one turn too many when the company closes down and they all end up with losing their jobs.

Even the government is guilty of one turn too many. The citizenry is constantly burdened with more and more taxes, fees, licenses, reports and all sorts of laws, rules and regulations that only serve to make life difficult and confuse people, providing for a fertile ground for breeding corruption. If you push people hard enough they will just simply refuse to comply and end up breaking the law or worse, rising up against the government.

Let us put balance in our lives and make sure we do not end up with one turn too many. Let us just do the job right and have realistic expectations, this way we can prevent the cost in terms of time and money from the damage of going too far and pushing too much. Remember when in doubt if you should make that final turn, just stop, you can always do it later, but if you go ahead and it breaks, you cannot turn back and correct the mistake.

(Comments may be sent to chua.george@yahoo.com)