And in the beginning

Since I have decided to start a blog dedicated to showcasing stupid people getting ahead, I would like to clarify a few things.

I am no rocket scientist.  I have not, nor ever will, find the cure for cancer.  I have not solved math equations that have gone unsolved for decades before me.  I will not draft the perfect legal brief freeing groups of oppressed people from tyranny.  .  No.  I’m yet another cog in the wheel who’s spent more than enough time commiserating with friends and family about people in power making bad decisions and being rewarded.  And then doing it all over again.

I’m fairly sure it all started years ago when I made the both best and worst employment decision of my life and took a job in the airline industry.  Not, mercifully, as anything in the air, but on the customer service side of things.  The job was bad.  I mean, bad, bad.  When you weren’t dealing with the traveling public – en masse – you were surrounded by grossly incompetent supervisors and managers.  These will, undoubtedly, comprise more than enough posts later but suffice to say I’ve seen badgers with more going on then some of those I “reported to” while serving my time there.

Since that time, I’ve been fascinated with the concept of Failing Upwards - the act of failing and being rewarded.  Many of the people I have seen advance in their careers are people I wouldn’t feel safe leaving my pet rock with for the weekend.  And I’m not alone.  Conferring with friends from all professional walks of life, I am constantly reminded that failing upwards is not a unique concept and instead something all of us routinely experience.  It’s a maddening phenomenon watching the incapable advance. 

Failing Upwards is the vehicle to vent and to turn the phenomenon from painful to funny.  Kinda.

This is going to be fun!