“I’ve never convinced a duck to stop being a duck, and I’ve never convinced a twitchy little bastard to stop being a twitchy little bastard.” – Roy H. Williams
Q: Why did the wizard say “duck” instead of another animal, plant, or mineral?
A:He wanted to connect his statement to a phrase you’ve heard all your life; “If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it is a duck.”
Words carry colorful luggage called associative memories; memories that are linked to other memories. These can work powerfully for your and against you even when the audience is not consciously aware of the associations you are triggering in their minds.
Choose your words according to their associations. Do not rely on definitions alone.
Synonyms are never completely synonymous.
“You must cause the undecided to decide, the unbeliever to believe, and the blind to see. And you must do it in 60 seconds. Or maybe 30.”
Did you notice those lines at the end of today’s Monday Morning Memo?
Whether you knew it consciously, or felt it unconsciously, that language describes the miracles of Jesus during the years he walked upon this earth. It underscores the miraculous nature of what the wizard said you must do.
