You live in an old house and the plumbing is… interesting. Translated: it needs repairs quite regularly.
A strange knocking noise has started coming from behind the kitchen wall; you sigh and call Steve the plumber. Steve comes on over later that morning, examines things under the kitchen sink and says, “Yeah, no worries. I’ll swibbulate the frillament and re-stickulate the bifrust and that should fix it.”
Your eyes glaze over and you say, “Great. Thanks.” You go read a magazine and do your best to ignore the sounds of swibbulation and re-stickulation coming from the kitchen. Whatever. Eventually, Steve is done, you pay him and thank him at the door. You forget about the transaction almost immediately.
Three weeks later the knocking noise has started up again, from the laundry. You roll your eyes and call Steve.
Again, he looks under the laundry sink and grunts, then he stands up and looks a bit awkward. “Look, I got a new thing and it’ll fix it better than the swibbulating. Can I go get it?”
“Sure, I guess,” you say. This is the first time anything interesting has occurred in your plumbing adventures; maybe it’ll be a shiny new doodad with buttons or something more noteworthy than a spanner and some spray that smells like concussion.
And Steve leads a glittery pink donkey into the laundry.
It’s… very pink.
Really glittery.
VERY… donkey.
You can’t look away.
Steve says, “I know it’s a bit weird, but it’s a magical pink donkey and it works really well and I thought…”
“Wow. Umm… wow. How does it work?”
“I dunno, really. He just touches stuff with his hoof and it fixes it.”
You’re too stunned to reply, and Steve – and the magical pink donkey – get started. The donkey sparkles over to the sink, touches one pink hoof to the pipes, then turns around awkwardly in the small space and leaves.
The pipes have stopped banging. You retrieve your cash with your mouth still open, dazedly pay Steve, then run off to call everyone you have ever met about the magical pink donkey.
The moral of the story
Most people do not care at all about how you do the work. They care about the results.
Stop talking about swibbulating the frillament. We don’t care. We care about how great it’ll be once our pipes stop banging.
Unless your work features a magical pink donkey, of course.
So how DO you talk about your work if you don’t have a magical pink donkey? Cash and Joy Foundations will teach you how.
photo credit:
