“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.” Henry David Thoreau
I had cataracts surgery a while back. Yet another sign that I am, in fact, an old geezer-head as the young son of a friend of mine once proclaimed (almost 20 years ago).
It was an interesting process. I had Lasik on both eyes fifteen years ago and it’s been great. I’ve enjoyed 20/20 vision and with the exception of the dreaded reading glasses have had no vision complaints – until recently. I was noticing that my vision wasn’t as clear as I was used to and most annoying my reading glasses didn’t seem to be helping on the close up stuff. So I bit the bullet and visited a local optometrist friend who after a thorough exam and way too many “Hmmmm” and “That’s Interesting” comments proclaimed that the good news was I didn’t need glasses. The bad news, however, was I needed cataracts surgery…in both eyes.
Great.
I was surprised about the “both eyes” part. Whereas my right eye had become very foggy (imagine having Vaseline smeared on your eyeball) I had started relying on my left “good” eye for any clear vision and frankly thought it was still at or near 20/20. I was even more surprised to learn that the cataracts were actually worse in my left “good” eye because in the right eye all I could read on the eye test chart was the “E”.
The fact that I was going to get my vision fixed was met with great exaltation from my golfing buddies who had for too long endured the countless rounds answering the never-ending barrage of “did you see my ball?” queries. The fact they didn’t bash me with a seven iron is a true testament to their friendship.
So, I had the right eye done – a pretty quick and simple procedure by the way – and after a night of wanting to claw my eye out because of the endless flood of tears from the, hardly exaggerating, nine thousand drops of medications they put in before the procedure I awoke to WOW, I CAN SEE. Not crystal, but a billion times better than before. And the bonus was in the next day followup the doc announced that my right eye was at 20/40 and there was still some swelling so it would still improve.
The funny part was now doing the right eye vs. left eye comparison I realized how bad my left “good” eye was. It was scheduled and performed two weeks later and I was once again invited by my buds to golf again.
So as is typical this whole ordeal got me thinking about life in the business world.
It was an interesting process. I had Lasik on both eyes fifteen years ago and it’s been great. I’ve enjoyed 20/20 vision and with the exception of the dreaded reading glasses have had no vision complaints – until recently. I was noticing that my vision wasn’t as clear as I was used to and most annoying my reading glasses didn’t seem to be helping on the close up stuff. So I bit the bullet and visited a local optometrist friend who after a thorough exam and way too many “Hmmmm” and “That’s Interesting” comments proclaimed that the good news was I didn’t need glasses. The bad news, however, was I needed cataracts surgery…in both eyes.
Great.
I was surprised about the “both eyes” part. Whereas my right eye had become very foggy (imagine having Vaseline smeared on your eyeball) I had started relying on my left “good” eye for any clear vision and frankly thought it was still at or near 20/20. I was even more surprised to learn that the cataracts were actually worse in my left “good” eye because in the right eye all I could read on the eye test chart was the “E”.
The fact that I was going to get my vision fixed was met with great exaltation from my golfing buddies who had for too long endured the countless rounds answering the never-ending barrage of “did you see my ball?” queries. The fact they didn’t bash me with a seven iron is a true testament to their friendship.
So, I had the right eye done – a pretty quick and simple procedure by the way – and after a night of wanting to claw my eye out because of the endless flood of tears from the, hardly exaggerating, nine thousand drops of medications they put in before the procedure I awoke to WOW, I CAN SEE. Not crystal, but a billion times better than before. And the bonus was in the next day followup the doc announced that my right eye was at 20/40 and there was still some swelling so it would still improve.
The funny part was now doing the right eye vs. left eye comparison I realized how bad my left “good” eye was. It was scheduled and performed two weeks later and I was once again invited by my buds to golf again.
So as is typical this whole ordeal got me thinking about life in the business world.
You know, a lot of times we fall into the “good” eye trap. Things look so bad from one perspective that by comparison other things look OK when in fact they’re not. In a way it corresponds to one of Jack Welsh’s management rules to rank your people strongest to weakest and always work on improving or replacing the bottom 10% no matter how good you feel the team has become, because everything is good or bad by perspective.
It’s hard to fix everything at once, after all they only fixed one eye at a time on me, so fixing the worst problem first is usually the right thing but don’t lose sight (no pun intended) of the fact that other things may only be good by comparison.
Now, where’s my golf bag? I want to actually see my ball going OB.
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