Few find pleasure in admitting the downside. We’d much rather hear about the gleaming sunny-side of an idea. “Let’s bask in the vitamin D and write a poem to the world.”
The preferred method of most who would hope to influence you is to launch a full-frontal assault using all the benefits they can load in the chamber.
“Look at all this good stuff!”
“Are you ready for the hurricane of positivity that will consume you?”
Oh, if it were true that it worked this way. Alas, there is no perfect idea. For every upside, you can bet your sweet aspirations there’s a downside lurking in the murky shadows.
My wife is a formidable cook. She strives to put healthy meals in front of our faces and often serves fish. You can only eat tilapia and salmon so often. She decided to mix it up by throwing a cod curveball one night. Two mighty cod filets lay seasoned on the stone baking sheet that rested on the glass-top stove while the oven pre-heated. I bent down to get a good look.
That’s when I saw the worm.
Yep. A worm was wriggling on one of the filets. After we were done freaking out, she called the grocery store. She was transferred to the seafood department and began to describe the traumatic scene. I watched as her face grew calm as she listened to the clerk educate her about cod and the worms that are common to that variety.
I whipped out my iPhone and searched feverishly. I found post after post of people describing in great detail this apparently common occurrence. Cod can carry roundworms. When you cook the fish they die. People who’ve prepared fish in restaurants indicated how often they’d see this. Sickness to humans related to roundworms in cod is extremely rare and usually is attributed to undercooking.
How’s that for a downside? Had we known we wouldn’t have panicked. We wouldn’t have immediately questioned the credibility of that grocer. Luckily for them we chose to call and find out rather than just post the video of the worm on YouTube with them tagged in it.
There’s a worm in your cod. You know about it but your constituency may not. If it’s intrinsic to you or your product and is part of the deal then I suggest you build it into your story. Admitting the downside gives credibility to the upside.*
Oh, and yes, we ate the fish. It was delicious.
*Credit to Roy H. Williams
