Have you found out what you are good at?

[David Vincent]

There comes a time in your life when you discover what you are good at. The lucky find out when they are young, but others like me have to wait until long after they are retired to discover their special skill.

My moment of discovery came this morning. It was a bit like that moment in Anabasis when a mercenary army a thousand miles from home discovers that all their senior officers have been treacherously killed by their Persian hosts. Xenophon, a lowly officer, took charge and stepped into the pages of greatness by leading the army home to safety. I'm sure there is nobody on here, with the exception of Sludge, who doesn't know the story. I've been told that Sludge usually played with himself during history lessons. The Warriors film used that plot.

Anyway this is how I stepped into the pages of greatness in my own mind at least. There was a standoff on my street between a lorry driver and a van driver. Two angry middle aged men would not give way and long queues of people trying to get to work and mothers taking kids to school were held up. All this was happening in front of my drive and I was expecting a delivery. Someone had to do something and that person was me. I talked to both drivers and I could see that they were both angry nutjobs. The first thing I did was to tell all the others that I would sort it out and they should get back in their cars. These third parties, especially the women, were the biggest problem. As soon as I sorted a solution with the drivers some silly person would come up and get the drivers arguing again. My tactic was not to let the drivers talk to each other. I told each of them separately that I thought the other driver was mad and possibly dangerous so they should just let me talk to him. That worked and they both agreed to make the necessary manoeuver. While this is going I was constantly placating third parties and telling them to get in their cars.

When my work was done and I stood on the pavement watching the traffic clear I expected to hear voices behind me saying “Who is that man?”. But I looked around and all the onlookers had gone. It felt like the end of the Seven Samurai where the surviving samurai wait in vain to be thanked for all they had done.

I've had many jobs but this incident reminded me of a temporary job I had sorting out disputes between people. I think I was quite good at this but I never thought much about it at the time. I now realise that is what I should have done as a career. Instead of finding out who was right and who was wrong I would ask each party what they wanted and then I would try and maximise what each of them wanted. I rarely found that it was a zero-sum game.

[Feedback]

you were telling others the drivers were mad?

[Vindec]

I've spent my entire life discovering what I am not good at.

[Blackadder]

you were telling others the drivers were mad?

DV ought to expect a law suit for slander