Alright, so I was thinking about this whole ‘vice and virtue’ thing the other day, especially with folks like Jon Jones in the spotlight. You see these incredibly talented people, top of their game, right? But then there’s the other stuff, the mistakes, the ‘vices’ everyone talks about. It really gets you thinking.
Thinking on It
It got me reflecting, not on him specifically, but on how we all kinda play this game. We see the highlight reels, the ‘virtues’, but everyone’s got struggles, things they aren’t proud of, the ‘vices’. I started looking back at my own stuff, you know? Not MMA fighting, obviously, but just… life. Work, mostly.
I remember this one project years ago. Man, it was a tough one. We were under the gun, crazy deadlines. I messed up. Made a call that cost us time and, frankly, some money. It wasn’t malicious, just a bad judgment under pressure. My ‘vice’ in that moment? Probably impatience, maybe a bit of ego thinking I knew best.
The Fallout
The immediate reaction from some corners wasn’t pretty. You could feel the judgment. It felt like that single mistake suddenly defined me, overshadowed all the good work, the late nights, the ‘virtues’ I’d brought before. It’s easy to pile on when someone stumbles.
- Felt isolated for a bit.
- Had to really push to explain my reasoning, not excuses, but the context.
- Learned a lot about owning a mistake, properly.
The Long View
But here’s the thing. I knuckled down. I worked to fix it. I put in extra hours, not because someone told me to, but because I needed to make it right. Showed my commitment, my ‘virtue’ I guess you could call it – perseverance, maybe responsibility. Eventually, things smoothed over. We delivered, maybe not perfectly on time, but we got there. Trust was rebuilt, slowly.
It wasn’t some big public drama like with famous athletes, but it was my own little vice and virtue game. Made me realize how quick we are to label folks based on the bad, forgetting the good they do or the effort they put in to recover. Everyone’s fighting some battle, trying to lean more towards virtue, even when vice trips them up. Just something I chewed on after seeing that name, Jon Jones, and thinking about the whole messy, human package.
