“Nobody succeeds beyond his or her wildest expectations unless he or she beings with some wild expectations.” – Ralph Charell, author

I guess a “four-minute mile” would be considered a wild expectation (see previous post). Of course, I think planning to land a man on the moon in under a decade when you are already behind in the newly formed “space race” was also a pretty wild expectation. And yet, before the decade ended there stood Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Pretty wild, huh?

I really suggest you read “Moon Shot” by Deke Slayton and Alan Shephard. This book tells of the astronauts involvement in the space program and all of the monumental effort involved in getting to the moon. After you read it, you will never look at the moon in the night sky in quite the same way again.

In my work, I am sometimes faced with people who have some pretty wild expectations. Sometimes they even have some foundation in reality; and sometimes they don’t! Sometimes people just think I can wave my magical mouse and conjure up a solution to their problem. I am very fortunate, in that sometimes I can. This is usually because their problem isn’t nearly as large or complicated as they believe it to be.

The real challenge comes when people come to me with wild expectations that require work – a lot of work. More specifically, a lot of work on their part – not just on my part. Its amazing how many projects I can get out of simply because there is no magical solution to the immediate problem.

Every once in a great while I am faced with someone who not only has a challenging problem, but is enthused about it. They are sure they can accomplish their goal and their enthusiasm is contagious. In those rare cases, my work becomes pure joy. A challenging project plus people passionate about achieving their wild expectations equals fun.

For what its worth, the “fun” is rarely there without there first being some sort of wild expectation.