TBP Open Your Mind

“Learning is the beginning of wealth.
Learning is the beginning of health.
Learning is the beginning of spirituality.
Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins”
– Jim Rohn

A section of an email I received this morning. Very appropriate…

The Squirrel and the Grasshopper

REST OF THE WORLD VERSION:

The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building and improving his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer way. Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

THE END

THE BRITISH VERSION:

The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed.

A social worker finds the shivering grasshopper, calls a press conference and demands to know why the squirrel should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate, like the grasshopper, are cold and starving. The BBC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper; with cuts to a video of the squirrel in his comfortable warm home with a table laden with food.

The British press inform people that they should be ashamed that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have plenty. The Labour Party, Greenpeace, Animal Rights and The Grasshopper Council of GB demonstrate in front of the squirrel’s house.

The BBC, interrupting a cultural festival special from Notting Hill with breaking news, broadcasts a multi cultural choir singing “We Shall Overcome”. Ken Livingstone rants in an interview with Trevor McDonald that the squirrel has gotten rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the squirrel to make him pay his “fair share” and increases the charge for squirrels to enter inner London.

In response to pressure from the media, the Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The squirrel’s taxes are reassessed. He is taken to court and fined for failing to hire grasshoppers as builders for the work he was doing on his home and an additional fine for contempt when he told the court the grasshopper did not want to work. The grasshopper is provided with a council house, financial aid to furnish it and an account with a local taxi firm to ensure he can be socially mobile. The squirrels food is seized and re distributed to the more needy members of society, in this case the grasshopper.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

While first impressions are critical (whether we like it or not), when is it appropriate to begin placing more emphasis on substance than initial impressions? Is what someone drives or wears as important as what they know? Probably not.

Flashy new cars and expensive clothes can be as deceiving as an old clunker (e.g. Sam Walton and Warren Buffet) and blue jeans (e.g. Bill Gates and the Google Guys). If you judge a book by its cover, you’re likely to either be surprised or disappointed.

Our business culture has slowly begun to recognize that it’s not what you wear but how you do your job. Casual Friday’s, once an anomaly are now the norm. The explosion of high-tech employment has given rise to casual “everydays”.

Common sense is beginning to take hold. When it’s 100° F outside, why wear a suit…duh!

Comfort leads to creativity, creativity lead to innovation, innovation leads to discovery, discovery leads to knowledge, knowledge leads to success.

I’m more impressed with a well-spoken person who is clearly comfortable in their own skin than I am one who is obviously trying to impress those around them with the “stuff” they have acquired.

It’s not about what you have…