What happens whey you try to please everybody?

Here’s a story I read from archives of Frank Patrick’s FocusedPerformance Blog –

An old man and a young boy were traveling through their village with their donkey. The boy rode on the donkey and the old man walked. As they went along they passed some people who remarked it was a shame the old man was walking and the boy was riding. The man and boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions.

Later, they passed some people that remarked, “What a shame, he makes that little boy walk.” They then decided they both would walk! Soon they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So, they both rode the donkey.

Now they passed some people that shamed them by saying “How awful to put such a load on a poor donkey”. The boy and man said they were probably right, so they decided to carry the donkey. As they crossed a bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and he fell into the river and drowned.

The moral of the story?

If you try to please everyone, you might as well kiss your ass good-bye.  

Trying to please everybody and not saying things as they are is the greatest disservice we do to ourselves and our organizations!