Project managing is really like driving a school bus. You have people of various ages, cultures and experiences forced together on a inescapable journey.
As PM you are responsible for getting everyone to the destination at the scheduled time.
You often have to stop the bus to ask the teenagers in the front seat to stop their frantic kissing. You have to pull the big kid and the small scrappy one appart before they start hitting each other and explain to the boy lying under the seats crying, that its not their fault and that in life not everyone is going to like them.
At other times you need to kick everyone off the bus and tell them to start pushing else they not going to make it home in time for their dinner.
The worst is when the kids want to get on an off at unscheduled stops, often jumping through the windows when you not looking.
Occasionally an inspector turns up and you have to amuse them with answering endless questions about subjects they wont understand in anyway, just for them to make a few notes and wander off at the next stop.
From time to time it might look like the wheels are going to fall off, but you learn to spot the warning signs and pull into the depot to get the nuts tightened, gas tank filled up and the wheels inflated.
And just when the nothing else can go wrong, you get a flat tire... everyone gets off the bus running around shouting and starting fights. So with one had lugging a tire, the other holding a wheel iron threatening to knock sense into the next kid who tries picks up a rock.
In the end everyone arrives safe and sound and the kid who you though hated you the most, even though you could not care less, thanks you greatly.
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