And I am not talking about the Zombie Invasion, or the Mayan apocalypse or even a mayor meteorological event; just every day stuff.
I was never sold on the Blanche DuBois School of Survival. Depending on strangers even those with the best intentions is a silly at best and suicidal at worst. Granted, sometimes there is safety in numbers, but those numbers of people must be in the same reference of goals and either augment your strength or cover your weaknesses.
But it ranks me that people fail to prepare for the mundane. If you happen to get headaches with certain regularity (and even if you don’t) and do not carry some sort of analgesic, you are a dunce. If you work at night or at a very big building and do not carry a source of light, get ready for bumping into things and probably get hurt. And I don’t care how cool is your latest smartphone, you will always need a pen or pencil and something to write or draw on. And for the love of God, carry some sort of knife or blade with you at all times even if it is a mini Swiss army knife; even the dumbest HR director will be hard pressed to call that a weapon.
At work I developed a reputation for being a prick because I refuse to lend/share/give my items to unprepared colleagues. I will explain to new hires what to expect and that they should prepare a basic kit to have with them at all times even if the company does not require it and sure as hell will not provide it. But most of them will not heed advice and loudly beg me for stuff as basic as a pen to sign a form, something they have to do every frigging day. The lesson is simple: You were told, I am prepared, you aren’t, deal with it. Funny thing is that they not only refuse to learn but waste their time being sore at me.
Start planning and preparing for the small things you may need every day and planning for the big things will be much easier and smarter.