The Late

Ever wonder why we refer to dead people as "the late"? Why do we say "the late Senator Ninoy Aquino" or "the late President Marcos?" If you know the explanation, please e-mail me. Frankly, I find it a bit strange that we use "the late" instead of more accurate terms like "the deceased" or "the formerly living" or "the now resting in peace."

My theory is that a person in history arrived late for a meeting or was late for a commitment, and the people who were waiting for him wondered why he was late and assumed he was dead. Or perhaps, the people who were waiting for him were so mad, they said "Man, he’s so late! When that guy comes, he’s dead meat!"

Whatever the reason is, I think referring to dead people as "the late" is kinda accurate to a certain extent, especially in the world of business. In business, timeliness is very important. You have all of these just-in-time terms in business – especially in the production and delivery process. In business, timing is everything. If you’re late in the game, you’re dead. In the restaurant business if your supplies are late and you can’t prepare the food by lunchtime, you’re dead. If you’re a contractor in a construction project and you’re behind schedule, every day of delay is a penalty against you and the more you delay, the more you’re dead. In banking, if you have withdrawals but you are late by one day in putting funds into the account, you’re dead.

This is really not a new lesson. We all know the importance of timeliness. How many stories have we heard about companies that boomed because of the timing of a product release? There are a good number of them. Look at Palm Pilot. In a digital hardware world dominated by HPs, Compaqs and IBMs, somehow Palm Pilot has thrived in the electronic handset category. And now they dominate it. If they were only slightly late, I’ll bet some of the big boys would have thought of the idea and benefited from the whole thing. And how about the Amazon.coms and the Yahoo.coms and other dot.coms that are now thriving and dominating the Internet? The reason they are successful where others have failed is because of timing. They were early in the game, the others were late. They’re now raking it in while the others are, well, dead.

In the media business, timing is everything. Advertisers place their spots at certain time slots and on certain days. If we don’t place spots in a timely manner, these spots will not work for the client. So we really strive to deliver our clients’ spots in a timely manner. If we deliver them later than the requested time slots, it’s like we never delivered them at all. And if we make it a habit not to air commercial spots on time, sooner or later (most likely sooner), we would be dead.

I have a friend who once worked as the IT head of one of the biggest manufacturing companies in the country. He was a stickler when it came to time (and he still is). If a supplier would set a meeting at 10 a.m., he would be in his office by 10 a.m., waiting and looking at his clock. If, by 10:05, the person who set the meeting has not yet arrived, he would leave and go somewhere else in the building. He would call his secretary every so often to find out if the supplier has arrived. If he is told that the supplier came at 10:10 a.m., he won’t go back to the office until the supplier eventually leaves.

I once asked him why he was so strict, considering that in Manila, it’s really hard to estimate the traffic conditions. His answer was simple and made a lot of sense: "There’s no excuse for being late. They are the ones who asked for the meeting in order to seek business from me. They have to show that they really want it. By being late, they are telling me that my business is not that important. I’m not asking for much. I’m not asking for them to come 30 minutes earlier. All I ask is that they come on time. That’s the first opportunity for them to impress me and if they fail, too bad. Personally, if they can’t even come on time, how can I expect them to service me in a timely manner? We’re all busy. If you set a time to meet with me, I assume that at that time, you are free, and I will make myself free for you. If you don’t make it at that time, sorry, I have other things to attend to."

I then asked him, "But don’t you agree that there are some legitimate excuses for being late?"

He replied, "If there is indeed a legitimate reason for being late, then you can call ahead of time. But personally, there are only a very few excuses that are acceptable to me. Traffic and running late because of a prior meeting are definitely not acceptable."

There is wisdom in my friend’s policy, though it’s a bit harsh and merciless. I sometimes find myself late through no fault of my own (like when one meeting starts late and a domino effect happens on all the meetings for the rest of the day). But fundamentally, his philosophy is correct. If you can’t even be on time, how can you be relied on with respect to the other important aspects of business? Or other important aspects in life.

Indeed, apart from the business aspect, being on time is all about charity and respect for other people. You don’t own the time of others. If you have a set time to meet, and you’re late by just one minute, you would have wasted one minute of the time of the other person. To be on time for a meeting is to be charitable to a person – you are saving the time of that person. And that is a lot. Time that is wasted never ever comes back. It’s gone forever. Being on time also shows respect for the person. Waiting is never a pleasant thing.

Personally, I make an effort to be on time. I simply hate being late. When I am running late, I want to kill myself. It’s just something I detest because I don’t want people to think I take them for granted. And I don’t want to be called "the late Rod Nepomuceno" when I am still alive and kicking.

Hey, I gotta go – I’m running late for my next appointment. Till next time – same time, same place.

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Thanks for your letters, folks! You may e-mail me at rodnepo@yahoo.com.