Einstein, Jesus, and the Shared Kiss – The Business of Aesop™ No. 97 – The Fox and the Cat.

Albert Einstein, Jesus of Nazareth, Steve Jobs and Ulysses S. Grant have something in common. Yes, they shared a kiss.

Einstein, Jesus, Jobs and Grant were each phenomenal successes in their respective endeavors. Each made pivotal contributions to fundamental shifts in history. Indeed, each person changed the world—and there is a reason.

Einstein posited the theory of special relativity in terms of riding a wave of light, Jesus cut through all the hard and heavy religious dogma and explained spirituality in terms of simple love. Steve Jobs consolidated the complications of technology into pretty little icons, and U.S. Grant, well, he said that war is sometimes just fighting it out.

Science is complicated. Religion is complicated. Technology is complicated. And, of course, war is complicated. But, these four persons cut through all the noise of complicated concepts by implementing a principle known by the acronymKISS,” commonly translated with some pejorative facetiousness, as “Keep it simple, stupid.

These persons cut through all the noise…by implementing a principle known by the acronymKISS,”…“Keep it simple, stupid.

Einstein went on further to say wryly that, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler,” and perhaps more tellingly, “If you can’t explain it simply, then you don’t understand it well enough.

Grant said, “The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.” Steve Jobs took the cue from Leonardo da Vinci, who said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

This is not to suggest that some complicated concepts are not simply complicated, but rather that simplicity tends to make things understandable and manageable. And, we know from experience that the more parts there are to something, the more things that can go wrong, the more things that can break, and the harder it is to fix.

From another important perspective, simplicity avoids “paralysis by analysis.” Sometimes, it just is simply natural for the two sides of our big human brains to trip over each other, to argue with each other about it, over-thinking the question. Some psychological assessments even break down basic human psychology into a dichotomy of “doers” versus “thinkers.” Over-thinking something can cause us to spiral down into inaction. Just ask the Winged Greek Goddess of Victory, Nike, who may have said, “just do it.

Simplicity avoids ” paralysis by analysis.”

From a business perspective, we know that it is certainly not good if potential buyers are dropping off of a website check-out because of too many options. “Let me think about all of that,” says the prospect. Sometimes, too many options have the reverse effect at the point of sale. It happened to me once at the grocery store when I was requested to buy hair shampoo for my family: I just wanted to select “normal hair” shampoo, which was way more difficult than I expected.

The KISS Principle can be applied in many ways, and we need to remember to satisfy it when we can do so. To simplify greatly. The KISS Principle gets a lot of attention these days, but, it is nothing new at all.

Yes, Aesop shared a KISS, too, teaching of the dangers of “paralysis by analysis” more than 2,000 years ago, with the elegant simplicity of his Fox and Cat.

97. THE FOX AND THE CAT

A Fox boasted to a Cat of his clever devices for escaping enemies. “I have hundred ways of escaping my enemies,” gloated the Fox.

The Cat meekly replied, “I have but only one.

Just at that moment, they heard a pack of hounds coming quickly. The Cat immediately scampered up a tree and hid. “This is my plan,” said the Cat.

While the Fox was considering his options, the hounds came nearer and nearer, and at last the Fox, for his delay, was caught and killed by the Huntsmen.

Moral of the Story: Too many options complicates the decision.

~ Gregg Zegarelli, Esq.

The happy life be these, I find:—

The quiet mind; the equal friend. No grudge, no strife. Wisdom joined with simplicity. The night discharged of all care.

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

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Copyright © 2016 Gregg Zegarelli. Gregg can be contacted through LinkedIn.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/shared-kiss-jesus-fox-cat-gregg-zegarelli-esq-

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