As we get ready to celebrate Halloween I am reminded about the scary moments on projects and starting my project management career.  Thinking back to my younger days I enjoyed dressing up in my Halloween costumes and “trick or treating” through the neighborhood to collect candy.  I wasn’t so fond of scary movies and haunted houses!  I recall the anxiety before entering the haunted house, the uneasy feeling in my stomach, and the fear of being scared.  I also remember the feeling of calm after exiting the haunted house and thinking, “well that wasn’t too bad.”  Then after a few visits, it actually became fun to be scared and the anxiety waned as I knew that all would be ok.  I didn’t have anything to fear from the scary gremlins and monsters in the haunted house.

I remember being a new project manager and feeling the same fears of the unknown on my first few projects.  I wasn’t sure what gremlins were going to trip me up and derail our projects.  It seemed like around every corner someone or something was waiting to shout Boo at me!  I wasn’t sure who was a good guy to help out the project team or who was a monster lurking in the shadows looking to scare us or do us harm.  Do you remember those days when you were afraid of the project gremlins?  

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