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