Ugly Babies

When I was a teenager, I made extra money by babysitting.  Don’t laugh; I was actually pretty good at it. 

There was a family that I often worked for who had recently had a new addition.  A baby boy.  Mother was just so happy and pleased and cooing all over the baby.  Everyone was telling her how lovely the baby was.  She asked me for my opinion.  Because of my strong Christian upbringing and having not learned to be the accomplished liar that I am now, I said “It looks like a prune”.

This was like so many other difficult life lessons I've had to learn.  Sometimes it’s better to lie.

As an aside, I did “google” the 10 Commandments and” lying” is not specifically there.  The closest they come is "do not bear false witness against your neighbour."  Looks like those guys back then had already learned that lesson.

Roger faces “ugly babies” everyday.  How do you tell a Customer that their artwork is not very good?  If you criticize it, you will be indignantly told; “It was designed by:  – me  - my wife  – my child  – my sister in art school  – the winner of the design contest  – a very expensive design firm."  Not only will you never get the order, you won’t make any friends either.

You have to give Roger credit.  He will often suggest, if the Customer doesn't mind, that he will bring along samples of our products with the existing artwork and perhaps some examples of different artwork that might be considered.  

In the particular case at hand, Roger was told that the existing art work was what the Company traditionally always used. However, since they were ordering shirts for all their employees, the President and Vice President agreed they would allow each employee to choose if they wanted their shirt with the traditional artwork or the new artwork that Roger had designed.

When the shirts were delivered, 2 had the old artwork and the rest had the new.  Guess who ordered the old stuff?  No friends were made that day.

And yes... After all these years, he DID look like a prune.