Managing companies inevitably mean meetings, and I do several every day, with various groups. I know the talk about meetings if not properly conducted waste lots of time, but then again, no technology have yet come about that is more efficient in sharing and understanding an issue between groups of 2 to 40 people better than face to face meetings.

Yesterday, in one of the meetings, I almost lost my cool when one of the members mentioned again a word that I think is a very tragic word in business and in life.

ALMOST. And you hear it in many guises.

I almost made the sale.
I almost won the game.
I almost convinced him.
I almost made it to the finals.
I almost got selected to be employee of the year.
I almost got shortlisted in the list of preferred partners.
I almost passed the test.
I almost won the lottery.
I almost made money in the stock market.
I made my appointment on time …well, almost
I finished the project on time … Almost.

The almosts never end. People who almost climbed the mountain, people who almost ” made” it. Everybody, I would guess, have their own individual tale of ” almosts”. It seems that not making it is a little bit more acceptable by adding the word, ” almost”.

Almost, I would think, can also mean you intend to do it, but did not. I almost told her I love her, would therefore actually mean you meant to tell her, but never got around to doing it.

Almost. It simply means whatever is your grand plan, you did not do it or make it. In the book of records, however, there is no such thing as almost win. Just winning or losing. Almost winning unfortunately, despite the terminology, gets you listed on the side of losing.

We can choose to be kinder to ourself, but what I am worried is that if our rhetoric of rationalization don’t end, we will never learn. Then we look back to our life, and said, ” I almost…. I could have been…..” . But that really just means you did not make it — and merely justifying to yourself with an almost, instead of moving forward and doing it.

I know It is hard. But maybe we just have to be brutally honest with ourselves. No excuses, just open proof. Sometimes in business and in life, the book of records lists whether you win it. Or Lose it. No such thing as almost winning it. As they say, ” no monument was ever constructed for a person based on what he almost did, only what he accomplished.”

The first step to success, I am almost sure, is firstly understanding the huge whale of a difference between making it, and ALMOST making it.