I remember hearing somewhere that the scion of a local grand (i.e., filthy rich) family was a failure because he was the first who failed to exponentially increase the family fortune—that is to say he didn’t make them multi-billionaires after they’d spent a century as mere multi-millionaires. I don’t know how true that is, but it illustrates a particular peeve of mine. Nowadays, it’s not acceptable to merely survive in the business world. Hell, it’s become unacceptable to merely do pretty well or even great. No, the requirement now is to continuously succeed beyond the wildest dreams of the upper echelons. Maybe YOU think you’re just building a pyramid, but they’ve decided it should have been a flying pyramid space station all along. Then, shortly after the launch, they’ll wonder why you’re just standing there, proudly watching the pyramid soar into orbit, because, buddy, didn’t you KNOW what they really wanted was a giant pyramid robot space station on Mars?
Get to work, chum! We can’t have you lollygagging!
