The end of a matter is more important than its beginning

The end of a matter is more important than its beginning                                      110710

            There are many grant openings that we see in the world today but there are very few of the started things that end as planned. If you look at this scenario you will realise that the people who start such great ventures forget that everyone can start something, but there is work that needs to be done before the end is reached. It is this discipline in pursuing the project that is generally lacking in most of us.

            If all the books that people started writing were finished, the world would be a better place because these books would have given us information that would change our lives. But these books were left unfinished at some point and some of them will never be finished. This is the reason why some great thinker declared the graveyard as the richest place on earth. All the things left undone by those who went to their graves make it a land full of great wealth.

            The new business venture that you promised people would come soon is still pending, years later. Everyone smiled when they read your project proposal. What happened to it? The studies you started a decade ago are still unfinished. Are you planning to leave everything at that level?

            There are thousands of athletes who start the Comrades Marathon every year. It is a noble idea to run this race because of the way it is reputed in the world. It is not everyone who starts, however, who gets to the end. Only those who get to the end get a prize. There are some who are in front for the first ten kilometers of the race who do not get to the end. It is not how fast you are in parts of the race that makes you a champion. It is reaching the end that is important. Some start slowly in this big race but in the end they finish and get their medals for reaching the finish line. In a race, the reward is given for reaching the finish line, and not in the way you run.

            The end of a matter is more important than its beginning. This is because everyone can start. It is very easy to start with everyone else. There are many who started grade one who never reached grade five. Others started form one and never finished three years in secondary school. Others went to university and left without their degrees. Many start in all cases but few get to the end. There are many, actually who start the degree program strongly with distinctions who fail in the end. Others begin by repeating their first year and keep at it until they graduate, seven years later, for the five year program. That does not matter, as long as in the end the desired destination is reached.

            What makes people to fail to reach the end is that they do not take time at the beginning of the venture to see if they have the resources to get to the end. A hundred metre race is hundred metres long and before you begin it you must be sure that you have the energy to reach the end. The marathon, on the other hand, is forty-two kilometers long. If you begin, make sure you have the energy to go all the way. Once you begin we expect that you finish. It does not matter that you are not prepared for it. If you begin you owe it to the spectators and to yourself to finish the race.

            The way to make sure you finish things that you begin is to count the cost. No race is easy to accomplish. There is a price to pay before you get the prize. Sit down and find out if you have all the resources that are needed for you to reach the end. If you have trained for only a hundred metre race do not enter the marathon race. If you do not have the resources to finish you may as well start something that you are prepared for. The sad thing is that after pulling of at the forty kilometer mark, there is not enough energy left in you for some time to run another race. If you had not started that particular race because of being unprepared, you would still be ready to compete in a half marathon or other shorter races.

            Once you realise that you cannot finish something, it is important to be realistic and save yourself and others the frustration that results when you fail to get to the end. It takes less energy to say no to a project that you cannot finish than to start and fail to reach the end. In fact it is less disappointing.

            Realise that in the end it is not how many projects you began that matters but how many you finished. It is not how you started that is important but how you finished. It is the end of a matter that is important, not just its beginning.