Lessons Learned from the Pyramids

By Vicki Wrona, PMP

I recently learned something interesting about the Bent Pyramid when watching the show Unearthing Ancient Secrets: Engineering Ancient Egypt, a show about the Great Pyramid.

Before the Great Pyramid, other pyramids were built, one of which is known as the Bent Pyramid. At the base of the Bent Pyramid, the pyramid rises at a 54 degree angle. In the process of building the pyramid, cracks appeared that got worse as they built higher and put more strain on the structure, so the builders changed the angle to 43 degrees to cut their losses. This gives the structure its bent shape and resulted in a marked decrease in height. The project was completed and the pyramid was a sound structure, but it did not have the intended original shape.

The lessons learned on this project led to the building of the Great Pyramid, which was the tallest structure in the world for 3,800 years, standing at an impressive 480 feet high with a base that is 756 feet long on each side. Something bigger and better resulted from that lesson.

Lessons learned have been used throughout history. For example, Thomas Edison used his many failures to allow him to uncover how to do something right. As he said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways it won’t work”.  The trick is to not let the setback, the supposed failure, stop you. If you handle it right, something bigger and better can come out of it. The article “Failing Forward: Seeing Problems as Opportunities” offers suggestions and resources on effective ways to approach setbacks and use them to your benefit.

What lessons have you used to create something better later?

 

Image:  Wikipedia