Category: Personal

It was my turn. My turn to share a “reflection.” I’ve never been part of such a large working team for this long. I usually work with different vendors all the time so working this freelance job for almost 2 months has been a change of pace for me. Each week we have a team meeting, just to update each other on progress of the many projects our department is handling, what is complete, and what is outstanding. I’m starting to settle in here and last week I was chosen to share a “reflection” – a short story or thought provoking tale to share with the rest of the team. So I chose this one from businessballs.com.

An old blind man was sitting on a busy street corner in the rush-hour begging for money. On a cardboard sign, next to an empty tin cup, he had written: ‘Blind – Please help’.

No-one was giving him any money.

A young advertising writer walked past and saw the blind man with his sign and empty cup, and also saw the many people passing by completely unmoved, let alone stopping to give money.

The advertising writer took a thick marker-pen from her pocket, turned the cardboard sheet back-to-front, and re-wrote the sign, then went on her way.

Immediately, people began putting money into the tin cup.

After a while, when the cup was overflowing, the blind man asked a stranger to tell him what the sign now said.

“It says,” said the stranger, ” ‘It’s a beautiful day. You can see it. I cannot.’ “

Being in a department full of programmers and analysts, no one really understands the importance of a little clever marketing and good design. A lot of times, functionality still needs form to get the point across. This story was a great representation of that.