Me: Where do you want to go for lunch?
Daughter: I am ok with any place.
Me: How about a quick thali at Woodlands?
Daughter: Ugh. No.
Me: Then, why don’t you suggest some place?
Daughter: I don’t know. I am not able to decide…
Me: When will you learn to be part of the solution and not the problem?
Daughter: Just because I don’t have a solution doesn’t mean I’m part of the problem, ok?
Me: Great repartee. You are going to be a very successful boss in the corporate world, in a few years.
Daughter: How?
Me: If someone comes to you with a problem, you can say with a straight face, “That’s interesting. Tell me, what do you plan to do about it?” Soon, that person will take the hint….
Daughter: …And go back clueless.
Me: And chastened. I knew of a boss who was even more impressive. If a subordinate approached him with a problem, he’d give him two more problems. Far from getting a problem solved, the poor guy would go back with three problems. That boss went far in his career.
Daughter: So, who ends up solving all those problems?
Me: No problem has ever been solved in the entire 350-year history of the corporate world. Problems just get forgotten and quietly buried, when larger ones materialize and make them look trivial in comparison.
Daughter: Sounds a lot like our Maths class, to me. I’ve always wondered if we’d be able to find some practical use for the stuff taught to us and the problems we are asked to solve. I realise now that they’re just preparing us for the corporate world.
Daughter: I am ok with any place.
Me: How about a quick thali at Woodlands?
Daughter: Ugh. No.
Me: Then, why don’t you suggest some place?
Daughter: I don’t know. I am not able to decide…
Me: When will you learn to be part of the solution and not the problem?
Daughter: Just because I don’t have a solution doesn’t mean I’m part of the problem, ok?
Me: Great repartee. You are going to be a very successful boss in the corporate world, in a few years.
Daughter: How?
Me: If someone comes to you with a problem, you can say with a straight face, “That’s interesting. Tell me, what do you plan to do about it?” Soon, that person will take the hint….
Daughter: …And go back clueless.
Me: And chastened. I knew of a boss who was even more impressive. If a subordinate approached him with a problem, he’d give him two more problems. Far from getting a problem solved, the poor guy would go back with three problems. That boss went far in his career.
Daughter: So, who ends up solving all those problems?
Me: No problem has ever been solved in the entire 350-year history of the corporate world. Problems just get forgotten and quietly buried, when larger ones materialize and make them look trivial in comparison.
Daughter: Sounds a lot like our Maths class, to me. I’ve always wondered if we’d be able to find some practical use for the stuff taught to us and the problems we are asked to solve. I realise now that they’re just preparing us for the corporate world.
2 comments:
Your conversations with your daughter just get better and better! She'll go far, bless her!
Really cool. I really wish that, that wish you want to for your daughter will all come true and that she is be in the top.
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