My wife and I are still in the Republic of Panama.  We have rented a house in the Volcancito area, named for its proximity to Volcan Baru, a dormant volcano approximately 13,000 feet high!  It is a beautiful place, as is the private estate where our house is located.  Once you turn into the gated, fenced property, there is only one way in and one way out … a private road with mature trees and large cedars densely lining both sides.  Here is a picture of the place from our front porch.

Yesterday during lunch, we heard a large diesel truck repeatedly grunting and groaning nearby.  That did not seem too unusual to us as  a working coffee farm borders our location.  When it came time to head down the mountain to take care of some things on our “To Do” list, I hopped in the car and left for the gate.  The top picture above is what I encountered.

So, this is the truck we heard, thought I.  It seems it was bringing road gravel for a project the owner is doing on the premises. The driver decided to back in to make dumping easier, I guess, when he stalled the engine. Unbelievably, the starter for the truck’s engine had been removed to send to a nearby larger city to be rebuilt.  So, it cannot be restarted.  The  mature trees on both sides of the road are blocking a “drive around”.  Another truck cannot be positioned to pull this one out, etc.  And, of course, the truck is loaded with 12 square meters of gravel.

The trucking company has promised to reinstall the starter (this is the solution!) this morning.

I have written about situations like this one before on this site.  While this example is beyond my imagination, it surely shows what can happen when all of the possible outcomes of a particular decision are ignored.  If you decide to “send a truck without a starter” out to work, ask yourself, what are the things that can happen?  Let’s see.  Everything might go fine (the outcome we prefer so we tend to stop right there) or the truck’s engine might die.  Maybe the decision-maker considered that possibility and reasoned, “No problem, I’ll just go pull the truck to start the engine”.

Yes, problem!  The dead truck is blocking a road, trapping three families from leaving their property unless on foot!  Oh sure, we could cut down trees, a solution we haven’t demanded and that the owner is loathed to do.

>When making decisions, both small and life altering, ask yourself, “Am I basing this decision merely on what I hope will happen, or is it well-thought out, with contingency plans for anything that might happen?”  Maybe you cannot know everything that could possibly happen, but there is one way to improve your odds in any situation.

Don’t do something stupid!