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Entrepreneurial Advice from the Hot Lips of Humpty Dumpty

STOP THE PRESS! This just in …

Humpty Dumpty gives exclusive interview to the Wall Street Journal about the importance of earnest and accurate communications for entrepreneurs.

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty says, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”

Okay, well maybe he didn’t really say it. Fact of the matter is this (close your ears, children!): Humpty Dumpty is a fictional creation. It was that real character, Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, who forced those words into the hot little lips of that immovable and soon to be broken character, Humpty Dumpty.

Given that those words, then, are fictional and didn’t really come from the mouth of anyone truly significant, do they still matter?

Of course you know the obvious answer here (my readership, women — and possibly some men — from New Zealand through India to US and Canada are as smart as a whip!): Of course they matter, for there is (truly) no line between fact and fiction.

Refer to my earlier article on Closed Minds Live Quiet Lives (see the sixth paragraph) to see how fuzzy and blurry the line really is!

My father, who prides himself on his philosophical mind and has read (and actually understands) Nietzsche, would have a great debate with Humpty Dumpty. Well, okay, maybe not, as my father would probably refute the existence of Humpty Dumpty.

But let’s pretend here for a second! Let’s pretend the two entered into a great debate.

When I was growing up, my father used to harp (my word selection, not his) on the double negative. “If a man says ‘I ain’t got no apples’ he really does have apples,” my father would argue. His logic would confound my eleven-year old brain, because the laws of mathematics supported him. I had just learned that if you add -1 with -1, you will actually get +2. I didn’t (and still don’t) get how you could add one absense with another, and not just get something that exists, but something that exists twice. In fact, I’ve got a headache now, just thinking about it.

But, hey, it was a law. And the teacher would grade you based on your ability to memorize (not understand) the laws.

So there it was, my father was right.

Yet, I wanted to scream back at him: “Hey, if buddy says he ain’t got no apples, then he AIN’T GOT NO APPLES!” You could tie buddy up and hang him upside down and shake him till his wallet fell out of his pocket, but nary will ONE APPLE fall from the folds of his clothes or anywhere else.

But I didn’t, because the teachers were on my father’s side, and collectively they must have been more right than buddy with the bad grammar.

Now, thanks to the eternal words of my good friend Humpty, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal (oh wait, I made that part up), I now now that I WAS right. Because when buddy uses a phrase, it means precisely what he means it to mean. Nothing more and nothing less.

And, my friends, as much as I like to believe I’m right (along side with buddy), there is also the confounding truth that we live in a dual world. There is another law, the Law of Cause and Effect, that says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. (Bear with me, folks, this does get dizzying!).

So as much as buddy is right, so is my father (and dammit all those fussy teachers too). For when my fathers HEARS a statement, that will means exactly what he chooses it to mean – neither more nor less.

And this duality, this existence of simultaneous truths, is what makes human communications so incredibly complex.

Between what I say and what you hear, in the invisible vapours of the air and in between my relationship with your words and my triggers, and your relationship with the same, the words transmute themselves. The intended meaning of whatever words were spoken are set free to the universe, and the receiver HEARS only what they intend to hear.

Understanding this will help you shift into the needs of your customers. It will make you a better business person and a better sales person. It will also make you a better partner, a better wife (or husband), a better mother (or father), and a better community member.

Humpty Dumpty is a sage old soul, and you need to both absorb what he says and DISCARD it. And then, and only then my friend, will you “get it.”

To your perpetual success,

Britt Santowski

About the Author

Founder of I’m Allowed.com (http://www.imallowed.com : ”Helping People Start Again”) and owner of the Chickrag.com blog (http://www.chickrag.com ), Britt has a dark and stormy work history that includes motorcycle instruction, cartooning, counseling (unrelated to the previous two), and civil service (information architect … completely unrelated to anything else, but hey, it was for the money!) Three years ago, she was laid off for the third time. And then, finally, she figured this little thing out about herself: she makes a LOUSY employee! Since then, she’s been working as a contractor and a coach to other new entrepreneurs.

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