“𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘰 𝘵𝘰, 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘴𝘬?’ 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘎𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘭𝘧 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨.

𝘛𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥,’ 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘦.

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦?’

𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥,’ 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘩𝘦.”

I have always liked the exchange above between Thorin and Gandalf from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”.

Somehow I found myself thinking about it recently while reviewing some tedious documents for ongoing corporate exercises.

Whenever I have to review a document which I find tedious, I will look at the number of pages of the document. I will scroll to the last page to see the extent of comments from the relevant parties- whether the track changes are few in between or whether the entire document is heavily marked up. That’s my ‘looking ahead’.

I will then scroll back to the first page and start my review. That’s my ‘looking back’.

There are always two computer screens in front of me when I work- one screen to display the compared Word document that shows the amendments made by other parties and another screen for the version which I work on. Paranoid as it may appear, I always compare the version that I sent out and the version that came back with other parties’ comments.

After I have reviewed 25% of the document, I will look forward to reaching the middle of the document.

After I have reached the middle of the document, I will have more momentum to keep going to reach the last quarter and finally to finish reviewing the document.

M&A and other corporate exercises could be draining and require a lot of emotional (and sometimes physical) labour.

I enjoy the work when there are moments of enlightenment, when the people are pleasant to work with or when I find my work meaningful. That doesn’t happen all the time. That’s when I have to dig deeper, learn the nuances and keep going.

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This post was first posted on Linkedin on 26 November 2022.