Widget WEvival
A parable by
Ken Cagle
There was a
man named Damien who discovered one day he needed a change. After a life of unfulfilled purpose and no
direction, he discovered the widget factory.
Making the widget, a great tool for all who were willing to buy, was the
direction Damien always needed. Damien
was so moved that he changed his name to Christian (His friends begin to call
him Chris).
After
sometime passed, Chris begin to discover ways to make the widget better and
passed his suggestions on to those above him.
The upper management always seemed to appreciate the suggestions and was
often quick to implement Chris’ ideas. Even though he never received any recognition
for the input he offered, Chris was just happy to be a part of the widget team
and wanted to be helpful.
One day,
while reading the widget manual, Chris discovered that there were serious
issues with the current widget model and began to rethink the widget, and how
it was compared to how it should be. After
many days of research and study, Chris took his suggestion for revising the
widget to his supervisors.
To his appall,
his suggestions were completely rejected by all of his management team. He was warned to stop questioning everything
and just keep quite because he was stirring up trouble. All logic and reasoning seemed to be thrown
out and Chris was devastated.
In a short
time, Chris was so distraught that he began to search for other widget makers
that might embrace his discoveries.
Chris was amazed to find that there were widget makers out there who had
already discovered the information he had found, and were making a better
widget. Chris immediately applied for
and was offered a position with these better widget makers.
Chris
returned to notify his previous employers of his decision and things soon got
out of control. Instead of gathering his
belongings and leaving quietly, it was just a short time until his last day
turned into an apocalypse. Much yelling
and ugly words were exchanged before Chris stormed out, effectively burning the
bridge behind him as he exited.
Upon joining
the new widget makers, Chris felt led to change his name again as the old name
smelled of the last widget factory. So
Chris felt impressed to call himself Jacob (His new friends called him Jake).
In a few
weeks, Jake discovered that these new widget makers had an idea he had never
thought of before. Why not take this
better widget to those who are using a faultier version of the widget, so they
can embrace a better way. This was ingenious;
Jake could see how this was helping the other people in so many ways.
Jake put on
his “I Have A Better Widget” shirt and rushed out to tell others. With his chin held high and a look of
righteousness all over his face, Jake stood outside the old widget factory and
waited for the others to exit after a long day of work.
To his shock
and dismay, all he approached seemed to be angry and hurt even directing that
pain towards Jake and were accusatorial in their replies.
Jake walked
away, shaking his head in disbelief that they couldn’t see how much better the
new widget was and how wrong they were in holding on to the old widget. He
would NEVER be that way.
The End.
