The true warrior is often asked, “Does it work? Does gaining your assistance really pay off?” With this questioning, the doubting mind tries to conceptualize the value that the true warrior brings to the table—without the knowledge or experience of being a true warrior. This, of course, is an impossible exercise, and there are only two ways to proceed: not at all or on the undertaking of faith—for you can’t know what you don’t know. You can only move forward in faith, and have the revelation of a “works or doesn’t work” philosophy. It is easy to say, “Of course, the way of the true warrior works, with all it’s peculiarities, deficiencies, warts, and all. The true warrior works hard twenty-four seven.” The real question though, is this: “Is it enough that it works?”

Or are there other unvoiced, unannounced, or hidden expectations? Is there a saboteur at work here?

This brings up the topic of unintended consequences (U.C.). Surprise, there are two kinds of U.C. (say that out loud: U.C. = “you see”). The first type of unexpected consequences are the ones that result from either not conducting a pre-mortem (a business strategy where you work backwards from a predicted, imagined failure scenario, to find possible contributing factors for the negative result) or from some event that was simply a surprise to everyone, and impossible to foresee.

The other kind occurs when there is an intentional or unintentional saboteur at work, and the U.C. is a surprise to everyone except the saboteur—who manoeuvred the individual or group into a course of action specifically to produce that U.C.. When it occurs, the saboteur can proudly exclaim, “You see! That is what happens when you don’t listen to me!”

The true warrior understands what an intentional saboteur is, but what about an unintentional saboteur? An unintentional saboteur is someone who is afraid of success, and has to fail—for it cannot be any other way. The unintentional saboteur is completely unaware of this self-defeating, or sabotaging behaviour.

So the lesson in all of this, for the true warrior, is that it pays to take time exploring all aspects of each and every alternative before engaging in a quest or requested course of action. True warriors are not happy being led down the garden path by intentional or unintentional saboteurs. You are warriors, and by considering multiple outcomes (and possible unintended consequences), you can increase the likelihood that you will be working rather than not working. As we all know, working is the pathway to great results, and overwhelming success. So it has been written.