Life: Completely Avoid It.

Let’s talk about OPM.

We know, well majority of people know, OPM to mean Other People’s Money. And, that would be correct. The initial sense of OPM (Other People’s Money) is a hit term because it actually works. Well, in most cases, especially when it has to do with Wealth.

Say there’s a car you really want, you want to drive this car whenever and however you choose but do not have the money to acquire said car, well OPM. You take out a loan, using somebody else’s money and in our side of the world, this almost always means the Bank’s money. It could be GrandMa’s, it could be your Pastor’s. The idea being you hand the bill to someone else while you take possession of the car. You enjoy the car and maybe pay the person back the money they had to let go off to give you the experience you craved. You attain the fulfillment of your desire but at the immediate cost of someone else. That’s the concept of Other People’s Money.

You want to start a business, you want to get a house? You already have a paid off house but want to travel the world instead? Almost every financial want can be explained away by OPM. Even venture capitalism, (these are the decision makers that makes possible the world you engage in) they are the definition of OPM. Founders and creators are given a bunch of money from OPM so they can go perfect that Ride Sharing App or that Photo Liking App or that Rocket Ship. OPM works, mostly.

Then there’s the other OPM, the one we’d be talking about today and scaringly, that also works tremendously. Today, let’s look at the acronym OPM to mean something different. To mean a blindspot that lurks in the corners, of which you should always be alert.

I’ll get to the point. OPM as to be discussed today is simply Other People’s Mistakes.

When it comes to Other People’s Mistakes this is when a person takes actions intentionally, or otherwise, that interferes and/or misdirect your life temporarily or permanently.

You see, I should just get this out of the way so it doesn’t continue to linger. Other People’s Mistake is my absolute pet peeve. You generally do not see it coming and it completely undermines everything you’ve sacrificed to accomplish. There. I’ve unburdened. Now, we can move on with the discussion and learn something together without me feeling salty. Woosah!

Running a stop sign, then accident, then cripple. That’s OPM.

Alright, let’s peel this Onion.

When it comes to success, you have to live by a regimen. The principles of success works for almost everyone but you have to put yourself in a certain atmosphere and abide by certain strict principles.

While principles of success works regardless of who you are or where you’re from or what upbringing you had, the principles of success also does not care what your “explanation” is of why you fall short.

Ok, having outlaid that general understanding, when it comes to success, you very well could restrict yourself to the strict regimen required for what you seek — it’s possible. While it might sound “easy”, it’s actually the toughest battle you would never completely win till the day you die. Almost everyone who never tasted success was stopped because of this reason.

Which is: the lack of the ability to master self, get into agreement with self to live out the required form of life, in order to accomplish whatever good thing they seek. That is in it’s simplest form, the reason a lot of people would not make it. It’s not the cards you’re dealt, it’s what game you play with those cards.

Alright, so say you are one of the lucky ones who does override self and tread the narrow and lonely path to self establishment, there is a shadow you have no control over, a shadow that could completely knock you off the ladder, that shadow is Other People’s Mistakes.

For better understanding, let’s agree on a few differences.

There’s (i) Unfortunate Occurrences, (ii) Mistakes and (iii) Negligence.

An unfortunate occurrence is a sudden rain on a wedding day. You can’t do jack to control or completely avoid it. You plan the best you can and you improvise the best you can.

Mistakes however are actions due to bad judgment. Regardless, if the offender meant well or “did not mean bad”.

Negligence is simply incompetence.

Imagine this: Rising star, high school basketball. Undecided and unselected. While he’s not the Number 1 seed, he knows his only way of securing a scholarship is to incredibly impress the scouts. Here comes the day, scouts are coming to his school to evaluate players. His team will be playing the Number 1 seed and our rising star is determined to play his best. It won’t hurt to give his all. His coach finds out certain top college coaches would be at the event instead of their scouts — they are coming to watch the Number 1 seed play.

Our rising star is determined. His mom’s knelt down praying, his dad is on the street court with him practicing for the big day tomorrow. Come the day of the game. An unfortunate situation would be him mysteriously coming down with the flu. A mistake would be his own team member “mistakenly” bumping into him so hard he has to be taken out the first quarter of the game, because of an injury. Negligence would be him getting incredibly stoned the day before.

A mistake is a human action that brings about a result different from that which is wanted.

Imagine your spouse has a late interview and cannot pick up the kids from school, with no one else to help, even though you have an afternoon flight, you are determined to pick up your little soldiers, drop them off at the neighbor’s, then skedaddle to the airport. Everything going to plan, neighbors drive into their garage just as you arrive to drop off the kids. 15mins, taxi shows up. You toss your bags in. You’re running late, taxi zooms away for the airport. You will make it. As you journey through, the driver misinterprets the GPS directions, takes the wrong exit into one of two highways. Now you’ve been signed up for a delay your plane ticket cannot afford. It’s nothing of your doing but you will suffer the consequences.

While it’s not encouraged to be a control freak, other people’s mistake can ruin your life.

Mistake is a female coworker sending a text with some nudes to your phone when she meant to send them to a different coworker. Now your pregnant wife who saw the message doesn’t know what to believe. You defend yourself you sound guilty. You don’t defend yourself, you are definitely guilty.

You could have a good thing going only to have somebody else pee all over your stuff.

The business of spy (as a craft) is built on OPM. Even, the Ivy League scandal was not because of Rick’s slip up but because of OPM.

I remember a few months back someone was telling me about the remodeling going on at her place. A different tenant had a fire going, fire gets out of hand while the couple were fighting/arguing and the memorable belongings of other people, a wing of the apartments, burned. It’s not a good thing for anybody’s apartment to burn but maybe take things a little more serious because a bunch of other people could be affected by your mistake.

Imagine, you tell a secret in confidence to somebody and they mistakenly tell the secret to the person it’s about because they were “drunk”.

On your way to destiny there are deadly insects called OPM, do not get bit.

Don’t be closed off to the world but be rarely open. People could ruin your life, I promise it’s not a joke. Do you know why Albon was bumped from his seat as a Red Bull driver? Because he did not win Formula One Podiums, especially when they really counted on him, Max was out of the race. Do you know why he didn’t win the podium? Because another driver mistakenly hit Alex’s back tire as that driver spun out of the race for mechanical issues. The life of everyone else continues but the paycheck of Alex (from Red Bull) stops.

When you suffer too much from OPM, numerous mistakes from others, people say you have bad luck. But do you really? Is it your luck or are other people forcing their luck into yours?

Here’s my story. Not too long ago, I shared a story of an accident a few years back. Though I was driving correctly, someone else decided to rewrite my history. I remember talking to the cop about the event, while we both agree I had right of way, it was one of those, “while you’re logically right and you can prove your case all day, too bad, you’d have to deal with the aftermath of their decision.” Unfortunately this is not the only time I’ve had to be exposed to the mistake of others. People taking actions with zero thought or care of how it might completely affect your life.

I’m reminded actually of a fella I met a month or two ago, he shared with me how his friends came to pick him up to ride around the city. They were shortly pulled over by a cop. Turns out the car they were in was just used for a robbery. His two friends and their brother (3 in total) were involved in the robbery.

The brother is not in the car but the guy telling me the story was in the car. The cops found the car they were looking for, found three young black boys that they’ve been instructed to look for — nobody cared that one of the black boys is not the third member of the robbery. Short story. He went to jail. That’s how a person’s life could be forever changed by Other People’s Mistake.

It’s important you understand I’m not taking the Preacher’s tone. I’m not saying I never make a mistake. Yes, I’m incredibly pissed by the other people’s mistakes, the difference is I try, I try very much, to make sure I do not act a nuisance in the life of another.

It’s tough enough to want the right thing for yourself. It’s tough enough to attempt the right thing for yourself. It’s incredibly inconveniencing to have to also make sure somebody else because of whatever they have going on or whatever they think is the right thing to do, completely knock you off the path you’ve suffered to glue yourself to.

To drive the point home, I will tell you the story of Veldhuyzen van Zanten. I learned about him from the book Sway. Mr Zanten’s a Pilot, world renowned Pilot. One of those picture perfect image of a Pilot. He was famous as much as you could be famous as an exemplary Pilot.

You get the picture, he was one of the very best. And, on the 27th of March 1977, our Aviation role model decides to make the mistake of taking off before he received clearance.

Now, before I go further I should state, in all caps if I could: It Does Not Matter What The Reason Behind The Mistake (Action) Is.
It — Absolutely — Does — Not — Matter.

Alright, because of Mr Zanten’s mistake Five Hundred and Eighty Three People were killed. Ok? The lives of family members, uncountable really, who had a relative on that flight was incredibly affected because of OPM.

So, yes. Plan. Tread carefully. Do your very best to be your very best. And be forever unforgiving with OPM. Protect yourself at all times. All times. It’s not a suggestion. It’s not a joke. Do not allow somebody else to kill you by mistake.

Do not give your all only for someone else to “unintentionally” disrupt your existence. There is no guarantee you will reach the same level of zeal and determination again, if you get knocked off because of someone else’s mistake. Never forget, people have other plans for you, so do yourself a favor. Improve your recognition game, then perfect your dodging skills.

Do not be ran off the road.

With Love,

Famous Steve.