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Hi everyone. It's Ricardo Vargas here, and this is the 5 Minutes Podcast. For about two weeks, I was basically offline, okay? I was dedicated to moving my home. And it's incredible because it's amazing how much we can learn from a process like this. And just to give you some background, this is nothing that I decided from one day to another. I sold my former house and bought a new one in the last quarter of last year. So, a few months ago. It was not one day ago, and I decided to wait until now to make the move because it's a less busy time for me, so I can manage, be more present, and dedicate a little bit more to making the move. And between the last quarter of last year and early this year as a project manager, I did whatever I could to plan. So, I take the floor plan. I adapt the furniture, for example, because I'm moving from a bigger home to a small apartment as part of a project that my wife and I call the Downsizing project. Because now, you know, my kids have gone. So I want to have, I would say, a simpler life, okay? And that gives me more flexibility. So we decided to sell some stuff, to donate some stuff and reduce the size of our life and, of course, our home and the move, uh, kick-off, uh, the last week of January.
And in parallel, I decided to do a small renovation in the apartment. And this renovation, honestly, is not a big one at all. So I just prepared my studio. I decided to put a second internet line using Starlink, so Starlink plus the traditional internet will have some redundancy in my studio to do some acoustics, um, in, in my studio. So these are small things, and I need to tell you. It was a nightmare. It was a true nightmare these past two weeks. And I want to share with you something that I learned. There are three points for us to remember that would offer each of you a perspective on how project management evolves. The first one is it does not matter how much you plan or how much you prepare. Changes and unexpected events will happen. Period. There is no way. And, of course, maybe when I say that, some people will say so. Ricardo, why did you plan? Because if I didn't plan, it's not just how much you plan. It's just a nightmare. It just, you know, it. Things just collapse. Because even with all the plans I made, changes happened. Unexpected happens. For example, when I started. When I started the renovation, I said I needed to. Turn on the light in the house because, of course, the cellar.
Uh, cut the light. And I need to make a plan and sign up with the energy company. And I said, okay, this would take four hours because this is so obvious to me. It took five days. So the first five days we painted the house and we did everything. Without electricity, without power. And when we built, for example, things on the wall of my studio, I recognized that the wall was not sufficiently strong to hold the acoustic plates. So we had to buy specific screws for that. And to not deliver. To not fail on the delivery. Um, I had to bring these screws to the worker that is doing renovation at midnight Tuesday last week. I drove 25km. This is about 16 miles just to deliver that. And this brings me to the second thing I learned. If you want to deliver, you must commit to your delivery. You must do whatever it takes to deliver whatever it takes to deliver. It. It's impossible for you to think about delivering and meeting the deadlines. If. You are not committed to that. So it doesn't work from 9 to 5. You will never deliver what it takes. And my third learning is the traditional graph. If fought versus time. Do you remember when you were studying Project Management? There is a traditional graphic, probably one of the most important graphics to understand project behavior.
It's a fight over time. And this graph shows that a fort goes up, goes up, goes up until it reaches a peak. And this peak is called the chaos point that I call. And it's the point that you reach the maximum effort. And I need to be honest with you. There is a point of chaos, and this point happened to me about one week ago. It's the week that you are pretty much dominated by despair because, you know, I was not working, for example. Basically, there are 15 days that I'm unable to work or answer my emails, and then everything starts collapsing. And then you see your bad with, you know, a gallon of paint on the side, and your bathroom is not working. The kitchen is just a mess. Everything. It's something like your life is just upside down, and you say, why did I do that? And honestly, my answer to you on that is there is a chaos point. It doesn't matter. Be prepared for that. And maybe it's not a point. Maybe it's a whole week. Maybe it's a whole month of chaos. Just be prepared for that. Honestly, what is the most interesting and the reason why I recorded this podcast to share this with you is that we always think that projects are nuclear power plants and massive digital transformation projects.
No. A move, a wedding planning, or, for example, maybe your final work at the university. These are also a project, and it does not matter how much you plan changes and unexpected events will happen. And to deliver, you must commit. There is no way you will deliver something. Just doing plain work. And the chaos point will exist. So it does not matter how much you prepare. Things will happen, and you need to be prepared for that. And this is an answer to some people who ask me, Ricardo, how do I get more experience in projects? It's by applying projects in your daily life. As I'm telling you, look, I've been doing this for 30 years. And I'm learning. And I'm feeling the pain of the unexpected. I'm feeling the pain of, you know, bringing a sofa and say, ah, you know, it. It does not fit well on this wall. And what do I do with this sofa? You know, and this is part of life of those who decided to work in project management. Be mindful of that. Enjoy your week, and next week, I hope I will record a podcast saying, okay, my move is over, okay, but now I need to go back to the boxes. Have a great week. See you next week.
