Way of the Kaizen Bachelor

Little Adam and Bobby just got their allowances. Their parents take them to the toy store and they see they can each afford either an airplane, space shuttle or a race car. There is only one space shuttle left, so Adam immediately snaps it up and goes home. Bobby however stalls until the store closes before carefully selecting the race car. They bring their new toys to school the next day to play.

Adam rubs the fact that the race car can’t fly in Bobby’s face. But then Bobby shows that he found out his race car can actually turn into a robot, which can fly AND shoot a laser gun. Adam’s jaw drops. Shoot a laser gun? His last of its kind space shuttle didn’t look nearly so good anymore. Adam stops playing, calls Bobby a pooface and yells that robots can’t fly.

He then stomps home, where he snaps off a wing by trying to make his good for nothing space shuttle turn into a robot. Instead of fixing it and having it continue to painfully remind him of his horrible choice, he just throws the space shuttle out and gives up his dream of becoming an astronaut. The boys have not spoken to this day.

The parable of Adam and Bobby demonstrates several common human behaviors:

• First, Adam chooses according to scarcity, not inherent value. Once taken out of the original context, all perceived rareness is lost.
• Second, Adam quickly changes his opinion of his toy due to the emergence of a new unforeseen criteria that trumps all.
• Third, once Adam realizes what has happened, he begins to irrationally resent the person who pointed out his mistake and take his frustration out on his toy for not living up to his new criteria.

You may have guessed that Adam is giving us a preview into behaviors not becoming of a Kaizen Bachelor. And you would be right. However, there is another point of view you may not have considered.

• Bobby is called a pooface and lost a friend simply for being a smarter shopper.

As a Kaizen Bachelor, we may have to endure some anger, disdain or even malice from those closest to us. Nothing hurts quite like disapproval from friends and family.  All I can say is, when you find yourself in a situation where a friend is threatened by what you are accomplishing, just be the bigger person, turn the other cheek and try to not let it get to you. They’ll come around eventually.

That being said, it’s not our job to start smugly pointing out other people’s flaws and mistakes. We don’t want to fall into Adam’s trap of loudly insisting that our way of thinking is superior. We have to remember to let other people live their lives in peace.  After all, it is always the more effective strategy to inspire the people around us, than to have to convince them.