“He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good.”
Rabindranath Tagore
He built the biggest jewellery chain in the world. Then he stood up at the Royal Albert Hall and called his products crap.
Gerald Ratner was speaking to 6,000 business leaders at the Institute of Directors on 23 April 1991. Someone asked how his shops sold things so cheaply.
One sherry decanter was priced low “because it’s total crap,” Ratner told the audience. A pair of earrings cost less than a prawn sandwich from Marks and Spencer. The sandwich, he added, would probably last longer.
The room laughed.
Ratners lost around £500 million of its value, the board removed him the next year and the chain was renamed.
One joke cost him the company he spent decades building.
The same trap appears the moment you do something good.
I ate a smash burger recently after sticking to my diet all month. The excuse was that I earned it. My body and brain felt sluggish immediately after.
Sticking to my diet gave me an excuse to cheat.
You finish 4 hours of focused work, complete a hard workout or eat clean all day. Then your brain treats that effort as permission to slack off. The reward wipes out the progress you just made.
Self-sabotage usually wears the costume of a reward.
To protect your progress against self-sabotage:
- Treat good habits as the standard. Sticking to your routine is the baseline rather than a favor that unlocks credit.
- Decide the reward beforehand. Pick how you celebrate before you start the work. Choosing a reward while riding a high leads to bad choices.
- Never reward a habit by breaking it. Do not celebrate a clean diet with junk food or a frugal week with a shopping spree. Reward the habit with things that keep it going.
A good day builds momentum. Spending it as permission is how you give that momentum back.
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What progress have you given yourself permission to erase?
