Marshall's rule: it blows his mind when people cite a problem as the *excuse* for failure — "the stock market crashed," "I got laid off," "I got injured." Yes: crashes, layoffs, injuries, and illness happen. They are part of the game, not surprises. So build your life to weather them in advance: avoid excessive leverage (survive crashes), keep savings and cross-trainable skills (survive layoffs), maintain some cross-training and stay ahead of schedule (survive injuries and illness without everything breaking). The Drucker line applies — a well-managed factory is *boring* because "the crises have been anticipated and converted into routine." The active rule is two-part: troubleshoot problems as they arrive, *and* install long-term fixes so they don't recur. Don't just survive the layoff — diagnose that it was worsened by a thin pipeline (raise your profile) and no savings (build a buffer). Problems are normal; with skill, they never become crises. Cross-domain: personal finance, career resilience, health, systems reliability. --- *Source: [[Book Inventory/Progression|Progression]] (Sebastian Marshall, 2016) — Upstream Effects #9 — Adherence and Mastery*