A very young boy and an elderly frail gentleman had a donkey . They decided one day all three would make a journey to the next village.The old gentleman rode the donkey and the little boy walked alongside. At the very first house they passed some villagers. They gossiped that it was cruel to make the boy walk. So the old man and little boy changed places and the boy rode the donkey.
At the next house the villagers pointed and said how cruel to have the frail old man walking whilst the boy rode so they decided this time to both walk. At the crossroads the villagers laughed and said what a waste of a donkey with the two walking. With this last accusation they both tried to ride the donkey together only to be met at the town square by folks shouting they were being cruel to the donkey. The old gentleman and little boy had run out of ideas and decided to try and carry the donkey. They were ridiculed all the way home.
I know in our own business we have old men , little boy and donkey scenarios everyday of the week. Deciding what is best to do when you have multiple options takes a sensible head to be sure we never lose the plot! Most of all it is the avoidance of multiple opinions that is key .
For Beth , Simon and I delineation of decisions and duties works beautifully for our family business . A clear, total self responsibility to different tasks works a treat.
For a ‘donkey’ experiment something which is totally my domain ~I threw a question wide open ; I must focus all my efforts on the design and packaging of our lovely fragrance products... as so I asked the team their thoughts on my new handcream box .
I had six different opinions ranging from , adding goldleaf , simply brown paper box to no box at all ! Confused my handcream box was soon going to be the donkey I was going to carry home!
And so fellow Gift hero’s , stay strong with your vision and direction. Life really is too short to go down every single avenue!