Sunday 20 February 2011

Reasons to be unreasonable.

The other day, when we were chatting about my father, Dave Trott reminded me of this brilliant George Bernard Shaw quote :

'The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists on trying to adapt the world to himself. All progress depends on the unreasonable man.'

He mentioned it in relation to Ron who was known as 'uncompromising'.

Ron wasn't afraid to hold out for what he felt would make things better.

To ask for perfection. Or as near as he could get to it.

This didn't make him popular.

But it made his work bloody good.

My dad wasn't afraid of upsetting people.

Of saying no.

We feel bad about saying no.

Well most of us do.

I do.

'No' always seems like a negative word.

But when used appropriately it can lead to incredibly positive things:

The most original work.

Enough time and money to do the job well.

The people in the room who can actually make decisions.

An end result that ends up as brilliant and effective as it could possibly be.

Every now and then I find myself being apparently unreasonable.

Then I remember.

Sometimes you just have to be.

It's part of the job.

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