Meet Your Deadlines and Back Up Your Manuscripts! | Tomoyuki Kojima (Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management)
2007.01.25
Failures come in many forms and happen frequently. It is said that "failure is the mother of success." However, for me, I have unfortunately learned very few lessons from them. My recent failures often involve PCs.
Now in its 24th year, I have been contributing a monthly series to a magazine ("Toa") on the theme of "Trends in China." The deadline for submitting my manuscript is around the 24th or 25th of every month. The length is flexible, but it still amounts to about 10,000 characters, which is 25 to 30 pages of 400-character manuscript paper.
We tend to forget unpleasant things, but this happened several years ago. After several days of collecting and reading materials, I finally managed to write about 30 pages. Relieved, I double-clicked to save it.
However, a message appeared on the screen indicating "delete all text." In a frantic state to send the manuscript, I spent over an hour repeatedly trying to restore it from a backup. But it was to no avail; the screen was completely blank.
In the past, I might have been able to use a family matter as an excuse for a delay, but that excuse is no longer viable. I frankly explained my PC-related failure and managed to get a one-day extension. By recreating the manuscript from what I could still remember, I was somehow able to send it early the next morning, narrowly avoiding a one-month gap in my series. Let this be a lesson: meet your deadlines and be sure to back up your manuscripts.
(Date of publication: 2007/01/25)