Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Tap Into the Power

What makes the muskrat guard his musk? I think that was courage. What I'm talking about is much more effective than courage: It's something I will call "pesterverence." When I was leaving a job interview the other day, "Larry the Owner" told me he could see that I was persistent and that he liked that. Hopefully, enough that he will offer me the job when the interviews have been completed.

It is good for people to remember the importance of this quality. It's what gave The Little Engine the ability to "could." It's the trick to being one of the freaks in the Guinness Book of World Records. And it's made it possible for guys nerdier than me to wrangle girls ten times their better into marraige all throughout time.

It's how my wife motivates me to paint the kitchen or take out the trash. It's the logic behind telemarketing, which we have every reason to believe will be around forever. So get out there and squeak, you shiny brass wheels, and all the grease from that nasty tube protruding from the outerwall of your favorite fast food joint is sure to be your reward.

I love the dialogue from the end of an episode of "The Simpsons":

Bill Clinton: "...Thank you, Lisa, for teaching kids everywhere a valuable lesson: If things don't go your way, just keep complaining until your dreams come true."

Marge: "That's a pretty lousy lesson."

Bill Clinton: "Hey, I'm a pretty lousy president."

3 comments:

Native Minnow said...

I also thought that line from the Simpson's was funny. However, Bill Clinton was about 10 million times better than the president we have now.

slimysculpin said...

I've made a terrible mistake. I've been trying to break my kids of this very characteristic. They are always pestervering me (can it be a verb?). Imagine the power they could have as adults if I just encouraged them to develop their whining skills.

Native Minnow said...

'Pesterverence' That's just an awesome word by the way. I got a call from Fed Ex yesterday asking me for a reference. I hope you don't mind, but I went so far as to make up some stuff in telling them that I've been trying to get you to move down here and work for me. Hey, they don't know that I don't actually own a business or anything, right? I must say though, for your benefit I hope you're only thinking of doing that as a seasonal thing to get through Christmas. I doubt they would be much different from UPS in terms of stress levels and job satisfaction goes.