Willy’s  a 72 year old Kazakhi immigrant living in a German prison, if he’s even still alive.  He was in very poor health the last time I saw him while he was awaiting trial.

We shared a cell with 10 others- a mix of Germans, Russians, Kosovars, and Lithuanians.

He taught me all about Failure Analysis through some intense chess games that would last days.

He killed his wife because he caught her cheating.  In their bed.  It was an act of blind rage.  He stabbed her partner with a steak knife, then clubbed his wife to death with a bedside lamp.  And then he had a heart attack after the amount of physical exertion.  It was the neighbor’s call to 112 that brought the polizei.

Why was I in a German prison…? That’s a topic for another day.  I could have avoided the situation entirely by using some Failure Analysis.  Needless to say, I refused to lie when that would have been the easy way out.  Without solid ethics and morals, what are we?

Chess is the easiest entry point into the world of Failure Analysis.  There are documented moves.  There are classic openings and variations of openings.  In 5 moves, a good chess player knows the opening you’ve used, a defense against it, and, traps to set to ensure they win.  While playing the game, however, one tends to focus on the next few moves rather than the last few.

Failure Analysis is only really useful after the game is over.  What good is it then? Although it’s mostly used by engineers and scientists and manufacturing industries, how can it possibly have anything to do with you and your life?

Great chess players study great chess games.  They pore over games and replay them on their own chess boards.  They learn by analyzing the mistakes of others, by seeing in exactly which move which side had “chess blindness” and committed an error.  They study whether the error was a calculated trap with bait so sweet it played on the emotional factor of the opponent.  They study whether one side could have possibly seen x number of moves forward to anticipate the others current move.  Great chess players are better Failure Analysis Engineers than those who have studied the field.

The entire perspective of Failure Analysis focuses on the past, and what’s gone wrong in the past to ensure it doesn’t happen again in the future.  It’s like walking forward while looking backwards to make sure you don’t bump into anything.

Can it be applied to Life? In Willy’s case, no.  He had been consumed by his emotions.  Isn’t that the distinction between science and humanity- emotions?  You can remove the humanity from science, leaving it a cold set of facts to be analyzed and dissected and acted upon, but you can’t remove the emotions from humanity. This is exactly how Failure Analysis can help.

From the contrast of our past emotions, we know what we like and don’t like.  What makes us happy, and what doesn’t.  Why persist with what does not?  Can this lead to anything else but failure, a life unfulfilled, disappointments and regret?  Maybe it’s time to view our own emotions through the perspective of Failure Analysis.  If it’s not working and not getting us to where we’d like to be, then doesn’t it make logical sense to continue on the same path does it?

In this sense, Failure Analysis has made me one selfish person.  I’m more focused on my happiness and what makes me happy than anything else.  Say what you will, but being selfish in this sense has made me more and more aware of how no one else is responsible for my successes or failures than myself.

When you consciously choose only that which is positive and right for you, you’ll realize that  being selfish in this sense makes the most sense.

Be Selfish!

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