Company Blog

Regret

by Adam Zack — February 9, 2022

True regret is a negative emotion.

“I hate regrets more than apologies”

― Fat Mike, NOFX

I was standing at the airport last night waiting for my wife to come out of the bathroom and was looking at the books at the airport store – you know the one that sells magazines, books, candy, snacks, etc. – and on display was a book that caught my attention called The Power of Regret by Daniel Pink. My first thought was how much a guy with the last name Pink got teased in school. My second thought was that my philosophy has always been the opposite of thinking of regret as a power. To me, regret was always “shoulda, coulda, woulda”. It spoke of action (or inaction). It put the focus on the past, which was something you can never change. Dwelling in the past distracts you from the present, and the future. Yeah, it was something you could learn from and not make the same mistakes again, but true regret is a negative emotion. It’s like saying “I wish I would have bought land out here back in 1990 because it’s worth a fortune today” or “I wish I would have chosen my lucky numbers because they were picked in the lottery last night”. Lamenting what could have been instead of what I’m doing now just doesn’t sit well with me. So I read the back cover and kind of see his point that reflecting on what we’ve done that we can do differently next time can be a useful tool, but a whole book about the Power of Regret? Somehow I feel like my time could be better spent living in the now and strategizing the future. But what do I know? Nothin’!