Common Firehoses

• "Yeah, but…" This is code for “I think the idea stinks.”  Anything that comes after the but is bull.

• The toos.  It’s too hard, too complicated, too expensive, too quick, slow, showy, takes too long.  Anytime you hear the word too it’s too late.
 
• They’ll never buy it.  Who’s “they” and why presume how someone else will react?
 
• It’s unrealistic.  Our favorite.  Was Galileo unrealistic?  Was Einstein?  How about Alexander Graham Bell or Ted Turner?  Realism is just a name for yesterday’s thinking.
 
• It’s just a fad.  Yes, and so were the compact car, the microwave oven, the fax machine.  Today’s fad is tomorrow’s household word. 
 
• It’ll never work; can’t be done.  If these naysayers are so smart, how come they never come up with any ideas of their own?
 
• If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  And if you wait until it’s broke to fix it, you’ll end up with nothing left to fix.
 
• Don’t rock the boat.   Huge waves of change are already rocking the boat and will sink it if you’re not prepared to change court.
 
• Don’t stick your neck out.  An ostrich strategy that can’t possibly work in a competitive environment.  If you don’t stick your neck out you’ll lose your head.
 
• It’s not in the budget.  Of course not.  This year’s budget was made up last year, when circumstances were different.
 
• Let’s wait and see.  A delay tactic based on the hope that down the road the whole idea will be forgotten.