Fake Flowers Will Not Do The Trick.

Raley's Supermarket Still Exists!

Years ago I lived in Sacramento, California.  I was single, lived in a small single bedroom apartment in a complex that had a lot of quiet neighbors.  I had a designated parking spot and a common recreation room only used by those who were young and social.  I never used it while I lived there.  I was a young workaholic.  I had plans to climb the corporate ladder with the organization where I was employed.  My sites were already focused on my target position with the company where I worked.  Somehow, the rec room did not fit well in that plan.

I was off work on a week day and feeling pretty good.  I had just received a management promotion the day before.  My boss gave me the day off to celebrate.  I also completed the prior week by working some very long hours several days in a row.  A day off was due.  I got up later than normal that morning.  I had some ideas on what I wanted to do for the day.  One thing for sure, I needed to go to the grocery store to re-stock on some food.  My cupboards were dry.

Fake Flowers With Long Plastic Stems And A White Bar Code Label

My apartment was a couple of miles away from a very good Raley's grocery store on American Drive.  I got dressed, brushed my teeth and pulled my car out of its designated spot and headed to the store.  It was a day of sunshine and normal community activity.  I arrived to the grocery store, got my cart and walked the isles.  Everything was par usual.  When I finished tossing items into the cart I rolled up to check out, paid for my goods and loaded my car.  I started the car to leave the parking lot and head home.  When I came to the exit way leading onto American Drive, the parking lot was lined with beautiful hedges that had some kind of fresh smelling flowers.  I manually rolled down my window to get a better whiff of their fragrance.  I had to keep looking both ways to get out onto American Drive, it was a busy boulevard.  When I got an opening, I darted out to beat the oncoming traffic.  Bam!  Something hit the passenger side of the front of my car.  It was a young boy on a bike.  He flew over the hood and onto the opposite side of the sidewalk.  He rolled and landed on his arms and face.  His bike bounced out into the street, next to the curb and out of the traffic patterns.  I jumped out to see if he was fine.  His bike actually hit my front wheel with his front bike wheel.  It tossed him over the hood of my car and onto the ground of the other side.  He was hurt a little bit but jumped up, grabbed his bike and wanted to get out of there very quickly.  I tried to convince him to stay to be checked out but he was able to get back on and quickly rode away.  I stood there in shock.  I noticed he went back in the direction he was coming from.  He changed which way he was going.

I never saw or heard from him again.  I figured he should have been in school and was either late or skipping classes on that late morning.  Whatever the case, it got my attention.  He was going too fast on his bike, riding the wrong way on a sidewalk hidden by a hedge of flowers.  He did not expect to have something go wrong while he was slightly breaking several common, but to him, insignificant rules.  He probably grew up believing fake flowers will do just fine!

 

This event happened in the 1970's.  It was a long time ago.  I still remember it as if it was yesterday.

There was no damage to my car.  I went home and cannot remember how the rest of my day finished.  It is funny what the mind will or will not wrap itself around.  How we are triggered to think and remember is something that makes our species very unique.  We will decide to do things that are not exactly the right things to do and we expect better outcomes for doing them.  We know what the common risks are but we forget or ignore them.

I am sure the young boy on the bike had no plans to have something like that happen to him on that day.  Hitting a car was not originally on his mind.  But it happens.  In fact, it will happen more often if the probability factors are increased.  If the boy rides the bike too fast on a sidewalk he increases the probability to have something go wrong, even if he rides the bike into the correct direction.  He can raise the likelihood even more by doing that speed in the wrong direction.  In fact, why not bounce the odds up even more by cruising the wrong way, real fast, and making sure it runs along side a tall hedge of plants blocking the view of any automobile that may edge out to enter a street.  I am also certain the boy did not have any inkling about the laws of compensation that coexist with our fractured actions about skipping school or being late to school.  This list of rules broken are not big enough to cripple the character of the young boy's life.  He was being a boy.  In fact, I am certain a few readers may consider viewing this young boy as a victim of circumstance.  Not true.

I truly hope and believe the boy was alright.  As insignificant as the rules are, they are in place to help protect us.  This accident could have been a lot more serious had he flipped and hit his head, causing a death.  The complexion of this narrative would be a story about many tragically changed lives.  It does happen.  Regularly.  It is of no small consequence that tiny violations can cause hugely unwanted negative results.  Your business life lives around this concept.  You can be expected to pay huge prices for little mistakes.  Sometimes those mistakes are caused by some tiny little rules breaking events.  Seemingly insignificant school skipping can turn into a tragic result.  Your business model may not escape a small skip.  It can be that fragile.

Bikes Do Not Violate Common Rules, Riders Do.

There is nothing wrong with riding a bike fast.  There is nothing wrong with taking your bike onto a sidewalk.  There is nothing wrong with planting fragrant flowers around the perimeter of your business.  There is nothing wrong with placing a curb cut on a passing sidewalk.  There is nothing wrong with changing your direction.  Everybody does this stuff and lives in tandem with this stuff, just fine.  We all take short cuts in our lives.  We all cheat a little bit as we develop our efficient paths to do more in less time.  We tend to learn how to skip the tiny little insignificant details.  We think they do not matter enough.

A few days ago I was chatting with an associate out of town.  He and his wife were making a comment about some structural road changes, some improvements to my little town and its east entryway to the downtown business area.  One of the new business models to become a part of the improvement process is a small local winery.  This winery is newly located down a small driveway next to the road improvements of the east way access to downtown.

This couple made a negative comment about the winery.  They have heard the winery advertise on the radio and it sounded like a special place to them.  So far, no insignificant rules broken.  Then came the cause of the negative perspective.  This couple travels the region checking out nice wineries for a hobby.  In our region, there are over 600 wineries to visit within a days drive.  This couple has acquired some particular experience in checking out the ones they like to frequent.  They described how this new winery shares on the radio how good they are.  They also described how they felt when they witnessed the white saw horse type road barriers placed near the opening of the winery driveway loaded with golden helium balloons shaped like stars.  These saw horse barriers are obviously placed there to signify the entryway of this winery to the drivers passing by.  The part that caused this couple to feel ambivalent about checking this winery out were the string of tall plastic flowers, complete with the forgotten white bar-coded label taped to the long stems which are carelessly stabbed into the top row of the saw horses.  They described those flowers as being, "Cheesy."  In their minds, cheesy did not match the radio script.  I got the impression this couple had more fun describing this cheesy place than the desire to check it out.

Insignificant rules are in place for a particular reason.  I have no problem with fake flowers.  In fact, I think 'marking' the driveway was a great idea!  It was poorly presented, however.  If the owner believes it does not matter to ride your bike the wrong way on a blind sidewalk at speeds too fast for responding automobiles who may enter the sidewalk at the same time you pass them by, then that owner is sadly mistaken about the respect every piece of marketing can support.  I got the clear impression that this couple did not plan to visit that winery.  The plastic flowers changed their mind.  Keep in mind, this is a couple who frequents establishments of this type!  "Cheesy" blew them out.

If you are using fake flowers, clip them appropriately and arrange them nicely in a glass bottle filled with a clear epoxy that dries well and looks like water!  I did go to see what this couple was speaking about.  When I arrived, the golden star balloons had lost their helium and were wind blown, dragging back and forth on the ground.  The 'fake stick flowers' did in fact sport the bar code labels sticking straight out like little white flags.  It did in fact, look very "cheesy."  The signs were black letters printed on white paper from a laser jet printer, no professionally prepared logo was on sight.  It was apparent the budget squeeze was on!  The couple who brought this story to my attention are both directors of positions in our region and earn above middle class incomes, each.  They have no children at home anymore.  They spend every weekend traveling to wineries for a hobby.  It is important to them.  "Cheesy" was not on their list of preferred criteria.

Take a much closer look at what your mind believes is good enough for you to present.  You may be off target by a mile and need to turn around and go back the other way.  At least the young boy figured that part out!

Until next time...