“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” - Gandhi

Now that I just have a few more additions to my team, i thought that a look back was due.

Well, the infamous decision made almost three years ago now. Let me just recall how things have gone since then.

First and foremost, i decided that day that the decision makers no longer deserve my acknowledgement anymore. None. Anyone and any group that was linked to that eventual decision is on my ban-list.

But let's get back to the period prior to the fateful day. Back.. Way back. A project that was supposed to be the build-out the fundamentals of the service. It gave me an insight into how things do not work.

With prior experience on the flawed project with practically the same team, Yeah.. my concerns were repeatedly ignored throughout the second project. I was told that it was "good enough", "this is not Office 2003", "get it over with", "will not happen".

Well, if i get a thousand dollars every time one of my concerns become reality, i could be Bill's neighbor by now. Haha.

So who would have known that this model was flawed? Well, almost everyone did. But did they do anything about that knowledge? No. It was not the lack of knowledge, nor intelligence, but the lack of courage by some folks to act in a manner that's required on what they knew. It wasn't ... that failed. Most of the establishment went along with the facade, and even promoted the facade to the rest of the company, and celebrated repeatedly of its success.

Since then, the service have never recovered from the lapse of judgement. Never had a chance at all.

Now that we have a all hell broken loose situation, and eyes and brains and heart are now all staring at the source of the problems, there appears to be a spout of armchair critics that are now saying things like "why didn't you do this...?", "why was this done in this manner?"..

Well, if i get a thousand dollars every time one of these "insightful" questions can be auto-replied with one of my concerns made years ago, i might even be richer than Bill. Haha.

So how did I get it right all along when the higher ups did not? It's not because I have better information; It's also not even because I was smarter.

I just decided to say what I knew to be true. No matter how much my statements had made me suffer in the next two years. No retaliation policy, i seriously wonder about that at times. Even with hindsight, i would have still made the same statements and raised the same concerns. Personally, i rather be right than be part of the cohort.

With the expedited changes recently, there are hopes from the team that things will be better. Perhaps for the new members. Quoting someone... i am too "poisoned". I wonder what will be required to remedy this situation.