Do you have a knucklehead budget? It’s not financial; it’s emotional, but it’s no less important than any other budget in your business or household.
In fact, a couple happenings this week reminded me why having a solid knucklehead budget is more important than ever… at least until they appoint a National Director of Common Sense (for which Lynn should immediately apply).
A Knucklehead Budget For Your Business
Knuckleheads wreck stuff… especially stuff that starts out good. Like this bit of good stuff my friend Professor Joey shared with me. In a CBS Moneywatch story, Michael Hess writes about his son being stranded at O’Hare airport with no money to buy a meal. Hess unsuccessfully tried to share his credit card with three airport restaurants before speaking with someone on staff at Wolfgang Puck Express:
Me: “Is there any way you can take my card and charge his meal? I’ll send a picture of the card, whatever you need to feel comfortable.”
WPE: “Unfortunately, we have no way of taking a credit card over the phone…”
Me (assuming that was the end of the sentence): “But, there must be some…”
WPE: “..so just send your boy in here and we’ll make sure he gets a good meal. My store manager and operations manager are both here, and we don’t want him to be sitting around hungry. You don’t have to worry about paying for it.”
Me (lump in throat): “Wha… you… no, please, I really insist you find a way for me to pay for this.”
WPE: “Just do something nice for someone else.”
This happened, folks. Word for word, just like that.
Great, right! But we both know what’s going to happen. Within hours – if not minutes – of the “kindness of strangers” story spreading across the Internet, some knucklehead’s going to try to take advantage of their kindness and scam free pizza. I wouldn’t put it past someone to send their kid into the restaurant while they lurk around the corner.
Puck’s is going to need a knucklehead budget. Puck’s needs to emotionally prepare for the fact that, yes, some people suck, but doing the right thing in spite of the sucky people is soooooooo worth it.
Until we can bring a lawsuit against them – think US v. People Who Ruin Everything – we have two choices:
- Stop doing nice things because it’s just not worth the hassle.
- Acknowledge there are jackasses everywhere, make an emotional withdrawal from our knucklehead budget, and keep doing good deeds even if some Baddy Badderson occasionally takes advantage.
Ignore the loud bleating of the troll. Stay generous. Do good deeds. Be awesome.
A Knucklehead Budget For Your Life
As you may have heard, some idiot straddling livestock wore a President Obama mask at The Missouri State Fair this week and got all sorts of people in an uproar. I’m not linking to the story. I refuse to give it any more attention.
On Facebook, though, I remarked I just didn’t have enough bandwidth in my life to care about this incident. Well… that bound up some friends’ panties pretty good. One even wondered if I was teaching my son to be racist because I wasn’t more outraged.
Huh?
We know there are problems in the world, and everyone I know with half-an-ounce of common sense knows the dude at the Mo State Fair was a knucklehead. With only so many hours in the day, sometimes you simply have to go into the knucklehead emergency fund and say “there’s no reason to let this fester with me.”
As another well-intentioned friend quoted Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
I couldn’t agree more. I just think Burke’s few good men need not waste their time on consensus knuckleheads.
Focus Your Attention On What Matters
I’ve written before about how our son taught us to celebrate different stuff–to separate the truly important from the merely urgent (and from the stuff that’s really neither).
You have plenty to worry about in your business. Don’t let the outliers trying to cheat you ruin your mood or your strategy of delight.
You have plenty to worry about in your life. Point your time, energy, focus, optimism, and enthusiasm toward things that matter.
That’s what my close personal friend Lexi did this week.
At that same Missouri State Fair, this 10-year-old young lady was rewarded for working her tail off all summer long, getting up before you most days and going to bed after you most days to take care of her steer, Ray. Last week, she gave up a trip to the beach to show Ray at the fair. She and Ray won 4H Reserve Grand Champion. She did the work. She won. She cried tears of joy.
That’s The Missouri State Fair story I wish was being shared.
Let’s celebrate everything that’s right about what Lexi and Wolfgang’s gang did this week, and let’s turn a blind eye to knuckleheads.
This is one of the best Daily Blurs ever. I would say that even if I wasn’t mentioned in it.
Amen, Brother Miles. Amen. And totally agree with Joey. One of the best posts. Because it threads life and how to live it with work and how to work it. Poignantly. Distinctly. Respectfully. Thanks for this. Great start to the day.
Tim I say: Amen.
Mamma always said – If you don’t have something good to say, best to your mouth
shut.”
It’s a sad commentary indeed that the, idiots, ner-do-wells, malcontents, scumbags, the wicked, the evil and the Knuckleheads make up about 95% of what We Americans hear about through Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo’s home page, the 24 hour News and word of mouth.
Thanks for sharing the terrific story of
Wolfgang Puck Express and Lexi!
Thanks, Joey. And thanks for sharing the story.
Thank you very much!
Thanks, Clay. Sounds like you were raised right!
Tim – awesome Blur today. Amen to your position on Knuckheads! But Lexi’s story really got me choked up because she WON….. Not the ribbon at the fair, but the personal satisfaction and self esteem that comes with doing the right things in life; getting up early, working hard at a noble cause, inch-by-inch becoming a winner….oh, AND you might just win the ribbon to boot!
Exactly! She did the work… its own reward… but the ribbon’s like a cupcake afterward. A really good cupcake. Thanks for commenting, Earl.
Well said and well done! My knucklehead budget has served me well through the years. I just never had a name for it until now. Now I can talk to my retail buddies about their return policies. “Make it about the customers, not about the [knuckleheads].” (I’m pretty sure I used an anatomical phrase in the past). Thanks!