September 22, 2006
in a word
Thanks to Robert Finklea for sending on this tip from the folks at Goals2Go
One day, there was a blind man sitting on the steps of a building
with a hat by his feet and a sign that read:
“I am blind, please help.”
A creative publicist was walking by and stopped to observe.
He saw that the blind man had only a few coins in his hat.
He dropped in more coins and, without asking for permission,
took the sign and rewrote it.
He returned the sign to the blind man and left.
That afternoon the publicist returned to the blind man and noticed
that his hat was full of bills and coins.
The blind man recognized his footsteps and asked
if it was he who had rewritten his sign
and wanted to know what he had written on it.
The publicist responded: “Nothing that was not true. I just wrote the
message a little differently.” He smiled and went on his way.
The new sign read: “Today is Spring and I cannot see it.”
Learning what to say changes everything.