STORY.
Pat Kilbane was nicknamed ‘The Killer’ for good reason. Standing 6’ 5’’ tall, Pat taught honours maths in Roscrea, and was renowned for his unwavering attention to detail and accuracy.
An imposing looking figure at the best of times, he was truly formidable on the morning following a defeat of his beloved Mayo in football.
On one such morning, ‘The Killer’ entered 2B classroom and proceeded straight to the blackboard, without uttering a syllable. You could have heard the proverbial pin drop.
Slowly and deliberately he began to write a series of equations on the board.
1 x 1 = 1
2 x 2 = 4
3 x 3 = 9
4 x 4 = 16
5 x 5 = 26
Reilly was sitting to the right of ‘The Killer’ and was the first to notice the error. He couldn’t believe his luck. He’d never been the sharpest knife in the drawer when it came to maths and he’d now nabbed the master making a mistake.
‘Sir,’ says Reilly confidently and triumphantly, ‘that last equation is wrong.’
You could feel the terror in the room. For one thing, ‘The Killer’ never got anything wrong. And even if he had, woe betide anyone who’d point it out.
‘The Killer’ looked from Reilly to the equation and then squared up to the class.
‘Reilly is absolutely right.’ ‘I got that last equation wrong.’
‘But how many of you noticed that I got the first four equations right?’
Nobody had. They were all far too focused on the mistake.
‘I wrote that last equation incorrectly on purpose,’ he explained. ‘Not to test your mathematical ability but to teach you an infinitely more important lesson about life.’
Standing as broad and as tall as Sliabh Mór, from whose slopes he seemed to have been hewn, ‘The Killer’ addressed the class.
‘Throughout your life, you’ll do many things well. You’ll work hard. You’ll help people. You’ll solve problems. You’ll accomplish many notable and worthwhile achievements. Some of you will go on to lead businesses and organisations and perhaps even the country. (One did ach sin scéal eile.)
‘Yet, for all of this, the world will often seek to highlight what you did wrong. Where you erred. The mistakes you made.
‘Your task in life is to focus on what you did well. Your strengths. Your victories however small. Your achievements.’
INSIGHTS.
- One mistake deserves attention. It does not deserve centre stage. Learn from your errors, but anchor your identity in your strengths.
- Progress comes from correcting your mistakes. Confidence comes from remembering what you did well. You need both.
- The people who sustain momentum are rarely those who make the fewest mistakes. They are the ones who refuse to let one mistake define them.
QUOTE.
To win just once would be enough For those who’ve lost in life and love For those who’ve lost their guile and nerve Their innocence, and their drive and verve —-‘To Win Just Once.’ The Sawdoctors.
QUESTION.
What are three things you did well today? Write them down.
POSTSCRIPT.
Although Pat Kilbane spent most of his adult life in Thurles, rearing his family and teaching honours maths to generations of Roscrea students, he never lost either his soft melodic Achill accent or his love of all things Mayo.
Reilly thought of him at ten to five on Sunday when Mayo overcame Kerry to win the All-Ireland. Pat was just sixteen years old in 1951 when they last lifted Sam Maguire.
In the intervening seventy-five years, Mayo endured more than their share of heartbreak, criticism and second-guessing.
That didn’t matter a tránín last Sunday.
Because, in seventy minutes, everything changed.
The defeats remain part of the record. The mistakes still happened. But they no longer define the story.
As ‘The Killer’ taught all those years ago, one mistake should never take centre stage.
Neither should a lifetime of them.
Sometimes all it takes is one victory to stop the past defining the future.
