I’m glad my wife isn’t on Medium.

If she was, I couldn’t share this.

Confession: yesterday, I called into a hardware shop when I was out on a bike ride.

A charity was selling sausages-in-bread outside the store.

(This is very common in New Zealand: sausage sizzles outnumber hobbits 3:1).

I stopped and bought a sausage.

“Do you want fried onions on that?”, asked the lady.

“Yes … NO WAIT NO!!!!!”, I replied.

She raised her eyebrows.

And, sheepishly, I explained why.

Last night Ron Jeffries – the 1st eXtreme Programming (XP) coach – tweeted about how he once got fired on a consutling gig.

He told his customer to put cards on a wall.

His customer wanted to use the bug / issue tracking software he’d just purchased.

They disagreed.

Ron left.

I LOVE fried onions.

So why couldn’t I have onions on my sausage?

I’m fat.

I’m married.

And if I had them … my wife would smell them and know I had a sausage.

So I settled on an inferior product … because it was a better solution.

Likewise, I’ve been in Ron’s position. What innovator hasn’t?

The best idea, isn’t the best idea unless your customer agrees (especially if your idea only might make them look silly).

I wish I’d know that when I was younger.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more and more successful because Ive (slowly, and painfully) learned to:

  • Pick my battles.
  • Build trust, over time.

You can’t help people if you’re not in the building.

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