It is the process that matters

Back in university days, our human resources lecturer taught us in any project, it is the process that matters. The process, or the experience that is gained from the process, sometimes is more important than the end result itself. I always have doubts about this teaching.

When I came out to work, my life experiences enforced my view that it is the end result that matters, not the process. Your performance is based on the end result, your promotion is based on the end result, everything is based on the end result.

This view of mine changed only a couple of days ago. Facing another bottle-neck again. All the efforts put in may go down to the drain in the not too distant future. I can blame the customer. I have never seen such friendly customer before. The failure is more due to stupid decisions by some short-sighted persons.

Only then I realised, even if the end result will be impressively bad, I still learned a lot in the process. It is the first time that we work on such products. It is a first for us, and many people are actually very interested in our work. Process is more important. It gave us the opportunity to venture into unchartered fields. The experience we gained is valuable in the future. We will for sure learnt the lesson and move forward.

Thinking this way, the gloom and doom feel that has been lingering vanished with the wind. Yes, it is the process that matters. It is late, but still better than never, that I learnt this.