For want of a nail the shoe was lost;

For want of a shoe the horse was lost;

For want of a horse the battle was lost;

For the failure of battle, the kingdom was lost—

All for the want of a horseshoe nail.

This poem is centuries old. I’d first read it as part of my English syllabus as a kid. At the time, I did not understand the underlying complexity of these simple verses. Now, I know that it shows how the causation principle works. How one thing leads to another and how for want of a tiny, simple thing, the whole kingdom could be at stake.

Success and failure have a thin determining line between them. You can work with dedication, determination and do everything by the book. But sometimes, your success or failure is independent of all that. Sometimes, even the most hard-working, result-oriented, loyal and dedicated employees are shunned by the organisation.

Does that make them a success or a failure?

Think of Tesla CEO Elon Musk being ousted as the Chairman of the company, for a moment. The man with the vision of electric luxury cars to flamethrowers and Martian colonies was voted out of the board of the company he set up! The same thing happened to the late Steve Jobs.

If these trendsetting visionaries were cut off from their own products, in order to ensure that the company does not suffer, then what chance does a regular individual have?

The idea remains to date that the ‘kingdom’ should not be lost for want of a horseshoe nail.

So what can prevent that? A little forethought, preparation and diplomacy, maybe. How do I know this to be true? It has been done. Let me give an example.

Do you know about the first Ethiopia-Italy war?

It was not the first African victory over Western colonizers, but it was the first time such an indigenous African army put a definitive stop to a colonizing nation’s efforts.  

The war was based on a bilingual treaty which did not say the same thing in Italian and Amharic. The Italian version did not give the Ethiopians the “significant autonomy” written into the Amharic translation. The former text established an Italian protectorate over Ethiopia, but the Amharic version merely stated that Menelik could contact foreign powers and conduct foreign affairs through Italy if he so chose. Hence, the dispute over the treaty arose.

Italians had hoped that a well-planned attack to get the control would be easy as there were differences in the local African factions. But, to their surprise, they found that Ethiopian ruler Menelik II had gathered the support of some of his traditional enemies, which acted as a united front when the war broke out. UK and France had extended their diplomatic support to Ethiopia, while Russia provided it with military advisers, army training, and the sale of weapons for Ethiopian forces during the war.

The Ethiopian king had not let the divide and rule playbook work, simply by gathering support and asking of his traditional enemies to set aside their differences in order to stop the foreigners.

This simple act of diplomacy coupled with forethought led to the victory of the African nation over a colonizing nation!

The point is that the secret to success is in being prepared. Knowing what you want is only half the battle. The rest of the work requires you to prepare and work towards it.  

History is filled with such examples. There have been wars won on sheer preparedness. There is a lesser known theory about why the Battle of Plassey was won by the British. It was their first step towards the British empire in India.

The Nawab’s forces were significant and severely outnumbered the British with over 40,000 troops, war elephants and over 50 cannons, even though one of the Nawab’s divisions was still being commanded by Jafar.

After some cannon engagements early in the day, a thunderstorm struck at noon and lasted about half an hour. Once the downpour started, the British quickly covered their artillery and ammunition with tarpaulins, however, the Nawab’s forces failed to do the same.

The Nawab’s ammunitions were rendered useless, but they moved forth, thinking the British had suffered a similar loss. But, the British artillery was working quite well as the Nawab’s army faced a barrage of artillery fire against them. The Nawab’s forces quickly began a retreat which was instigated by Jafar.

In the end, the stronger army with greater ammunition lost, because they were not prepared to protect the weapons from getting drenched in the rain! The other side prevailed because they brought tarpaulins to cover their weapons!

Success and failure are determined by the smallest details we might find irrelevant. We need to keep an eye out for them.

How can you emulate success on an individual level?

In my limited experience, nothing beats being prepared. Let us take job interviews. I have given way too many interviews for jobs. The drill is that if you have an interview,  you read up about the organisation, your resume, your field of interest and some more. You go prepared.

For instance,  if there are two candidate interviewing for the position of an associate in a general corporate team of a law firm, they might need to gain domain knowledge of company laws, business laws, commercial transactions, business structuring, etc. Now, one candidate prepares by doing say a business law course, or an M&A law course, researching about the company, the industry,etc. He/She knows how to structure a business, what are the different stages of a transaction, how to prepare a term sheet and on. This candidate has an edge over the other candidate, simply based on thorough preparation.

In an interview, not only your knowledge and experience is tested, but also your personality and composure. Recently in an interview, I had to maintain my nerve and confidence while being questioned simultaneously by two panelists. I grew weary mentally, but I tried not showing it on my face, as I knew they were testing me not only for my responses but for my reactions and composure.

So, the next time, you are thinking about shaping your legal career or simply reinventing it, then give it a thorough thought. Ask yourself questions, get to the bottom of your interest, do your research about the domain, do online courses, master the domain. Leave no stone unturned in your quest to success.

For true success is achieved by the ones, who prepare for the unforeseen obstacles, in time.