I’m glad my wife isn’t on Medium.
If she was, I couldn’t share this.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
