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Career Reality
The “Rip It to the Studs” Lie
And why we deserve better.
Waiting for “Succession” to come one Sunday night, I was enticed into a before-and-after makeover series. Word to the wise: If you want to addict anyone, a before-and-after is a powerful way to do it. It’s probably the before-and-after quality that factors into why home makeover shows are a such a hit.
This show happened to be about beach cottages and each episode features the owners talking about the rundown beach property they bought to “bring back to life.” A la, “When we bought it, there was a wall here! Can you believe that!?”
Of course they just bought it for a ridiculous sum of money, but decorum requires silence on all money matters.
In the first few minutes of every episode, you hear the words, “… we had to rip it down to the studs.” To be accurate, these people have paid to have other people to, “Rip it down to the studs.”
This stud ripping is always in pursuit of the other word you hear in every episode: “vision.”
And for the hat trick, you’re reminded in each episode this effort was a, “labor of love.” As in, “When Chauncey and I saw this, we knew we’d have to rip it down to the studs in pursuit of our vision. [insert dramatic pause] “It was a labor of love.”
