Satanic Clowns and the Working World

[Music]

90

000 hours according to forbes.com

the average person spends 90 000

hours working their lifetime no sleeping

or eating

just pure work mathematically

this is roughly 10 years of just working

according to statista the average life

expectancy of a canadian in 2020

is roughly 82 years one third of which

we already spend sleeping

what do we do in the remaining two

thirds

that’s what’s so interesting because in

spite of

all the differences there are between

people one near universal trend

is those 90 000 hours of work

furthermore regardless of what you

choose as a profession

you have to contribute your 90 000 hours

somehow on top of that

every single person watching here at

home has already worked

will work or will continue to work in

the future

so this begs the question

how does one person’s time compare to

that of everyone else’s

i myself entered the workforce more than

a year ago and while i obviously haven’t

contributed my 90k

yet i’ve still put more than 800 hours

in the service industry for better

or a lot worse well

how about that question asked earlier in

relation to me

is my pay equal to my value to society

how do i compare to that of a doctor

lawyer or engineer and lastly

how can we strive to make those 90 000

hours as easy as humanly

possible to begin with

i like to dispel some common

misconceptions and cliches

every single job is hard

in its own way sometimes it’s

obvious like in coal mining or rocket

science and other times

not so much like in fast food and retail

for example

for instance janitors god bless their

hearts

have an unbelievably thankless job

they have to pick up the litter clean up

the floors vacuum the carpets and do

so much more additionally

just because a job looks easy doesn’t

mean it

is easy and that thinking undermines the

value

of the job itself before going

any further let’s first look at what not

to

do one gentleman who is a regular

says he has an issue with his coffee

and this is where the headache begins

enjoy the journey with me folks

now most fast food places are quite

lacked with replacing food

if something’s within reason they’ll

give it to you no problem

so he says the coffee has no sugar which

again

is a fair complaint

however massive however a really big

however

our gargantua however what he does

next puts him squarely in the wrong

at this point he’s already frustrated

and i begin to apologize to him

but instead of accepting my apology or

ignoring it

he gets more worked up

he says something to the effect of all

you gotta do is apologize i want a

solution

and then proceeds to throw the coffee

all over the place

so as you might be thinking

i was confused puzzled angry

everything in one ironically

not only did he waste my time but he

wasted his as well

and everyone that was waiting in line

for their food

if he had just taken the replacement

went on his way all of this could have

avoided no problem and yet he didn’t do

that

ladies and gentlemen this is what

not to do he didn’t respect me as a fast

food worker and he didn’t respect

anyone’s time

i was beyond frustrated i’m still beyond

frustrated

thankfully now that we know what not to

do

we know what we should do

one time i was working in the restaurant

as one does when they’re a mcdonald’s

worker

and a peculiar man came to the counter

he wasn’t just any man

barely even a man he was a little bit

different

he had a big bushy red afro some pasty

looking makeup on his face

an assorted mismatch of dirty looking

clothes

the man was a clown

a real actual clown

that’s weird you might be thinking it is

so he comes to the counter and he orders

food

as a clown does because i guess they’re

hungry

i don’t know you’re just as lost to me

so the count orders and

matter of fact the clown does a good job

ordering which is another layer of

weirdness

in fact i would go so far as to say the

clown

actually treated our time respectfully

he didn’t

add anything weird he wasn’t shifting

around and just

doing whatever he treated our time

respectfully

he did a really good job ordering

when i finished the order we both

understood it was done i gave him the

bill and change

that was that and while he was doing the

order

he was very involved he was very he was

listening very intently

he was looking at me directly in my eyes

like i’m looking at you at home

and he was very very present very very

present

still you’re thinking everything’s good

in the world the clown gets his food

he’s sitting at the table

i’m sitting at my table

we’re done what you might be thinking

and i wish

that was the case i wish that was the

case but what happens next

is truly one for the history books folks

truly one for the history books

so as i’m minding my business i’m barely

getting paid enough to buy my own

business

i can hear the clown off in the distance

i can hear the clown i didn’t want to

hear the clown but i did hear the clown

i hear the clown murmuring something

about satan

so we already have a clown adam

mcdonald’s

satanic clown murmuring about satan

that’s like too many layers of weird man

i don’t get paid 14 whatever

per hour to deal with that but even

still he ordered well

that’s like four different levels the

clown ordered well

so let’s put this into perspective a

satanic

clown ordered better than some grown men

and women

let that sink in

i gave you a couple seconds i know you

need a bit more but we have to keep

going

so the clown orders well that’s great

and all but why is it that he ordered

well why do we have to emphasize that

i’ll tell you the reason why it’s

important that we treat others with

respect and civility in any body of work

it doesn’t have to be just fast food

is because of something called

reciprocity you’d want others to do the

same for you the golden rule kind of

so the clown orders well but why is it

important that he orders well

it’s because of something called

reciprocity you’d want

someone else to do the same thing for

you

muhammad aliyah is a really good way of

putting this he says

i don’t trust anyone who’s kind to me

but rude to the waiter because they

would treat me the exact same way

if i was in that position frankly you

don’t have to be me

you don’t have to be the janitor you

don’t have to be the waiter because i

can absolutely assure

everyone watching at home today will

have at least one job

just one in their lifetime that they

absolutely dread

detest and unfortunately

one that will also be looked down upon

by society as well

with that being said why is it that we

have to compare jobs

when we’re all fundamentally grinding

for such an unbelievably amount

unbelievably large amount of time

for nearly 100 000 hours

if we’re all contributing to the society

why does it matter if we’re picking and

choosing which one’s better

which one’s more prestigious anything

like that

thankfully as the clown ordered so well

i want to give you guys

a few instances that will highlight how

you can actually apply

his order taking skills and any other

aspect of your life

more specifically interacting with other

jobs

so our first tip treat time

like you would money in our society we

feel

so guilty if we lose even so much as

one dollar how about a minute

the thing with time is that it’s

universal meaning if you waste my time

you’re wasting yours as well and frankly

anyone else who might be involved

like the coffee guy for example he

wasted everyone’s time

and you can’t get time back as he would

money so

how what the clown did well is he was

direct

he told me exactly what he needed

nothing more nothing less

if he’d um and odd it would have been

such a prolonged and convoluted process

however he avoided that but simply

telling me

what he needed

i can’t believe i’m about to say this

but be like the satanic clown

from mcdonald’s as weird as it sounds

second thing second maintain a mutual

understanding

again going back to the clown when he

had taken the order

we both understood it was over unlike

some other people he didn’t add

anything after he had paid otherwise

we’d have a second order and then he had

to wait for the second order and the

second receipt and all that and all that

and all that

it’d been way more complicated instead

he simply told me what he needed we both

understood

the transaction was over left it at that

it doesn’t even have to be fast food

because we know

in any other circumstance for someone to

fulfill your request

they first must understand what you’re

asking first

if the clown was adding another sandwich

adding another one and then adding

another one

he doesn’t even know what he wants

therefore i can provide that for him

so to avoid the unnecessary convoluted

massive mess make sure that everyone

understands what the other needs to be

successful

so both people can walk away knowing

that they are satisfied

with whatever contribution they made in

the transaction

or any service for that matter

thirdly and this one most importantly

especially in today’s climate listen

to understand not to reply

i’ll say it once more i’ll say it once

more it’s simple

listen to understand not to reply

oftentimes in our society we think what

we have to say

is more valuable than the person and the

receiving end of the conversation

when that’s untrue completely untrue

back to the clown if he was ignoring

what i was saying

didn’t have any stake in the in the

order taking process

it was in his own fantasy land which i

guess is what a clown does

his food would be completely messed up

because i don’t understand what he wants

instead he listened he looked at me

directly

and understood what he needed therefore

i was able to provide that for him

besides

fast food besides any professional

setting in any circumstance in your life

if you listen listen well you will find

that things become so much easier

whether it be personal academic

professional anything

ladies and gentlemen we’ve gone through

a lot today let’s do a quick summary of

the three

tips that we discussed earlier first

things first

treat time like money if you treat time

like money you won’t just spend it

wherever you go

second thing second if you maintain a

mutual understanding

there will be no mistakes within the

request that you’re providing

to whoever you’re providing it to

thirdly

lastly and most importantly

listen to understand not to reply

that speaks for itself

let’s backtrack even further in the

introduction we discussed a lot about

numbers numbers numbers numbers

so you spend 90 000 hours

in actuality 10 000 hours alone

makes you the best in the world at

something more math

and one lifetime with all the time you

spent working

you could have been the best at nine

things let’s give you some tangible

examples

in one lifetime you could have been

michael jordan mike tyson

elon musk warren buffett bill gates

steve jobs

a couple other people i’m forgetting but

you know they’re really rich famous and

powerful whatever else

you could have been all those people in

one lifetime

in one lifetime but you spend all that

time working

working working working breaking your

back just for a living

when you could have been rich famous

powerful successful whatever

all that to say is that every single

waking moment of our lives

is spent trying to thrive to succeed to

make it

if that’s the case why don’t we treat

every single person’s time

with dignity and respect whether it be

the janitor or the ceo

whoever else it may be because everyone

provides a service to our society

some way everyone’s body of work

everyone’s 90 000 hours

everyone’s contribution to our society

should be respected

should be held to high regard and we

shouldn’t compare them

however if that sappy stuff

isn’t your cup of tea just rest assured

knowing

that leaving the speech you should be

a satanic clown at mcdonald’s