Cup of coffee, anyone?

You will no doubt be pleased to see that Cicero is on time this week. Indeed I might even be early. I am truly sorry about last week’s wee lapse but I hope I make up in quality what I might sometimes lack in timeliness.

And this week like the politicians Cicero will be offering help to the hard pressed in these difficult times.

For Cicero recognises that times today are tough for people and that this is taking its toll on people everywhere. Even state bureaucrats are not immune, even if we are striving on a daily basis to protect the safety and security of its people. And in this environment we can often lose sight of what is important to us and to our people around us.

To help us remember what is really important and to help the people we lead keep a sense of perspective, and I think this is a key attribute of a leader, I would like to share with you a story. It is probably apocryphal but it does teach us a valuable lesson and I pass it on that it might help you in your own life as well as encourage you to pass it on to help those around you.

And I am indebted to a really good friend and long standing subscriber to Cicero Speaks for the advice and insight provided. Maybe Cicero Speaks should become Cicero Listens.

Anyway if we are all sitting comfortably Cicero will begin……..

Once upon a time there was a learned philosophical lecturer who one day stood before his philosophy class with a very large mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee before him. Without saying a word he picked up the mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls .He then asked the students, if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. But they were wrong.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly and the pebbles filled up the space between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. Again they were wrong.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar and the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.' They were still wrong.

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed. Now the jar was full.

'Now,' said the professor to his students, about to start the lesson, and this is where Cicero wants you to pay full attention, 'I want you to imagine that the mayonnaise jar represents your life. The golf balls are the really important things - family, children, health, and friends. In other words if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

‘The pebbles are the material things that should matter less like your job, house, and car. The sand is everything else --The small stuff.

'If you put the sand into the jar first,’ the philosopher continued,
'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. Similarly if you put in the pebbles, the material stuff, first you will have no room for the things that really matter like golf balls.

‘The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

‘So, and here endeth the lesson,’ said my philosopher friend, ‘pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness like friends, family and health. There will always be room for the other stuff if you start with the big stuff.

'Take care of the golf balls first -the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'

One of the students raised her hand and asked what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled a knowing smile, ’I'm so glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.'

And so whenever things start to get tough for you, your business and the people you lead, please remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee and pass it on.

Is it only me?

I happened to be travelling back home the other night from my Top Secret State Bunker, my exertions done and the safety of the citizenry protected for yet another day.

Inadvertently I happened to travel in a so-called quiet carriage where all noise from extraneous sources like telephones, portable musical devices and no doubt crisp and sweetie wrappers is supposedly banned. And boy are such petty regulations enforced as I know to my cost when my mobile began to chirrup its tone. The looks, the stares, the tut tutting that went on. You would have thought I was in the bowels of the British Library rather than a diesel engine train groaning and straining to return the Reggie Perrin-types to their nuclear families in their mock Tudor executive ghettos.

Now is it only me but can anyone explain the difference between a short phone call and an animated conversation between three passengers for the entire duration of the journey home? Why is my telephone conversation verboten and yet it is ok for people to talk as much as they like, for as long as they like on a topic so banal and trivial that it makes you questions what is the point of educating people? Why is small talk allowed and conversations of national importance banned just because it goes through Mr Apple’s finest plastic? I would love to know the answer.

And in meantime and until this enduring mystery is cleared up, have a great week.

Sis fellx. Et sis fortunatus.