The irony of irony

The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive – Robert A. Heinlein.

Irony is…

Deciding the market is not ready for a new product and then watching in horror as your competitor launches it only a few months later with resounding success.

Leaving a job because you hate your boss, only to find you are now working for one who you dislike even more, and realising your old boss wasn’t that bad after all.

Spending years trying to change the culture of an organisation, then leaving and hearing through the grapevine that all those changes are finally taking flight – and you are not there to see (or enjoy) them.

Finding yourself in the same situation that you have berated and judged others about.

The customer you fought so hard to win is high maintenance, less profitable and sucking up all your resources.

The ‘small fry’ client you endlessly debated as to whether to ditch or not, ends up being the most profitable and low maintenance client in your portfolio.

The graduate “star” you so lovingly recruited, mentored, promoted, and ultimately predicted a stellar career ahead for, ended up being a psychopath.

Spending your entire working life striving to get to the ‘career summit’, only to find that when you reach it, you have sacrificed your marriage, time with your children and your health. And in the end, it just wasn’t worth it.

Devoting the most time and energy on your poor performers and the least on your highest performers. Think for a moment how different the outcome would be if you applied the reverse.

The thing you keep trying to avoid  keeps popping up in your life, over and over again.

The blogs you thought would fly, flop. And the ones you write in ten minutes over a glass of wine are the most popular.

What’s missing from this list? Add yours.