When my daughter was eight she moved from one primary school to another. The new place was completely different. Educational standards were much higher and structure and discipline were right at the top of the list of priorities. Everybody was expected to dress and behave correctly and treat each other with respect. I’d have hated it, but she absolutely loved the place.

A few days after starting she came in from school, excited about the afternoon they’d just spent preparing and practising for sports day the following week. “It’s so much better than at the other place,” she said, “It’s a lot stricter… there’s no thumbs on eggs!”

I wasn’t sure whether this was a good or bad thing because I know one thing for sure – out in the real world, she’s almost certain to come up against people with thumbs planted firmly on eggs. It doesn’t matter what she wants to do, she’ll inevitably come up against people who are bending or breaking the rules in order to win. And that’s the same for you. So how should you react?

Well the universal default solution seems to be to whine and whinge about the injustice and unfairness of it. This is usually accompanied by feelings of anger and stress. So you’ll moan and groan and let off a few expletives. You’ll use the word unfair a lot. But does that do any good? Of course it doesn’t, and it can only have a damaging effect on your health if you allow yourself to be affected like that. So what CAN you do?

Well you could complain to the ‘referee’. Depending on the field you’re operating in, and the seriousness of the thumb-on-egg transgression, that referee could be the police, a court, a trade association, a regulatory body, an ombudsman or some other higher authority. There may be times when that’s a sensible course of action, but most of the time, it won’t be.

Why? Because it will be time-consuming, expensive and will divert you from your primary goals. When you’re eight years old and at school, telling the teacher is a viable solution. It’s quick, cost-free and usually effective. In the real world, it’s slow, expensive and the outcome is uncertain. Over the years, I’ve had cause to appeal to the ‘referee’ on a number of occasions, and although I’ve almost always won, it’s rarely felt like it.

So is there an alternative? Actually there are three…

You can stick your own thumb on the egg. Pretty simple this one. If you can’t beat ’em, you decide to join ’em. There are, however, two key considerations here – your moral position and the possible consequences of sliding your thumb over that egg. If your moral position is such that any egg holding is completely out of the question, then the consequences are largely irrelevant. This option just isn’t for you. You have to live with yourself and you have to sleep soundly at night.

But if you find yourself wavering a little, you need to assess the possible consequences, the potential rewards, and whether one justifies the other. It’s impossible to generalise here because in one situation you may be risking jail for a few hundred pounds and in another you may be risking a mild rebuke from a trade association for a million. In reality, your situation will fall somewhere between the two, and the course of action you choose will be a very personal decision.

Your second option is to just accept it. So you find out as much as you can about the way these people work, counteract it where you can, and don’t worry about the places where you can’t. You work within your own moral code and framework at all times, and don’t concern yourself with people who operate within a different framework. If you want to continue in your field, and aren’t comfortable stretching the boundaries, then this is the only sensible long-term option. The main shift you need to make is a psychological one, and I can’t pretend it’s easy. Simple – yes. Easy – no. Because like a drug-free athlete in the Olympic Games, you have to accept that the price of your stance is that you’re not going to win, and lesser performers will beat you.

Your final option is to get out of the race altogether. You’re in a race. Your competitors are cheating. You don’t like it. You may decide to go and compete in another race where the competitors aren’t so nasty. Now this may be an option if you happen to have found yourself in the dirtiest race in town, but you need to be sure of that first. The harsh truth is that you may find yourself jumping from the frying pan into the fire. As any hardened eight-year-old egg-and-spoon race contestant will tell you, you often can’t see the thumbs on eggs until you’re in the race and running alongside.

I can’t and won’t tell you what you should do. All I can do is to alert you to the undeniable fact that whatever race you get involved in in life, a number of your competitors will be keeping their egg in place with something other than skill and ability. I’m not going to say you should bend the rules; call in the referee; just accept it or get out of the game altogether. But I am going to tell you not to whinge and whine about how unfair it all is, because it won’t change a damned thing. Nobody ever said it was fair. The only question is what are you going to do about it?

There’s one more solution I haven’t told you about yet. You see, not all egg-and-spoon-race cheats are as obvious as to put their thumbs on their eggs. The really canny ones are a little cleverer than that and use a small piece of Blu Tack to attach the egg to the spoon. It’s almost as effective, but totally undetectable to either the referee or fellow competitors – even when they’re running alongside.

If I were looking to secure an unfair advantage, I’d choose the Blu Tack on the spoon every time. I’ll leave you to ponder where the Blu Tack opportunities might be in your life.

Kind Regards

John Harrison  

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Just In…  

Hello,

We have just received the email below from one of our customers. I thought you might be interested in what he has to say…

From: John C******* [john********@*****.com]  
Sent: 09 August 2020 09:58
To: Admin
Subject: “The Hermes Strategy “

Dear Bill, 

Well that was a result —- I certainly wasn’t expecting the system to pay for itself in 2 days with 66/1 shot Star of Emaraaty! I have backed 66/1 shots before, but I don’t think I would have picked this one!

Once again ——Thank You Very Much.

Kind Regards,

John

If you’d like full details on what he is talking about please Click Here 

 All The best 

John