In the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai, the lead character, Colonel Nicholson, is a prisoner of war in Burma who leads his men to build a bridge for his Japanese captors. Nicholson is an officer of high integrity, dedicated to excellence, a great leader of men — and thus well trained to complete any mission that he is given.
He builds a beautiful bridge. By the film’s end, he finds himself in the painful position of defending the bridge from attack by fellow officers who want to destroy it to prevent Japanese trains from using it. There’s a chilling moment of realization, right before he detonates the bridge, when Nicholson (Alec Guinness) utters the famous line, “What have I done?” He was so focused on his goal — building the bridge — that he forgot the larger mission of winning the war.
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Marshall Goldsmith, “Goal 1, Mission 0,” Fast Company, August 2004.
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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #21121]