My Forsyth_March 2021

OK, Readers. This month let us take a little quiz together.
1. Would you rather choose which restaurant to visit on an outing or
have your date/friend surprise you?
2. If you are on a trip and see a sign at a highway exit advertising
something that sounds wonderful, do you get off the highway and
explore or keep to your schedule?
3. Would you choose a potentially high paying job where half the pay
is bonus money that might or might not happen or a much lower
but guaranteed salaried job?
4. Are all your friends so predictable that you know pretty much what
their opinions are about any given topic before you have a
discussion, or are you constantly surprised by what comes out of
their mouths?
BOOK REVIEW
Orbiting the Giant
Hairball
5. Do you order the same meal every time you visit your favorite
restaurant, or have you tried pretty much everything on their
menu that seems promising?
By Gordon MacKenzie
Review by Jacqueline Thompson Graves
It is pretty easy to tell what my
quiz is after, isn’t it? Are you a
person who seeks safety and
security, or are you always
looking for a challenge, for wide,
open spaces?
In MacKenzie’s book, Orbiting
the Giant Hairball, he describes an old
Garfield cartoon where the naughty cat
goes into a pet store, opens all the cages
and yells, “Freedom! Freedom!” Much to
his surprise, none of the animals run out,
but instead hover in the backs of their
tiny cages. Garfield runs back down the
aisles, slamming cage doors and yelling,
“Security! Security!” Then he gives us all
that look.
It is important to know yourself.
How many writers have written that advice—know thyself—in a million
words when two will do? MacKenzie believes, and so do I, knowing whether
you value security or freedom is an essential part of succeeding, of being
happy. If you are one of those who answered “choose”, “keep driving”, “lower
salaried”, “yes” and “yes” to the quiz above, you probably will not appreciate
Orbiting the Giant Hairball, except maybe to laugh at the pictures. But if you
are a person who is part of the second group – those who chafe against rules,
who butt up against boundaries, who look for loopholes to get out of doing
stupid things required by management—you are MacKenzie’s person. You
will not just laugh at the pics; you’ll get them.
“
MacKenzie believes, and so
do I, knowing whether you
value security or freedom
is an essential part of
succeeding, of being happy.
Gordon MacKenzie worked for 30 years at Hallmark Cards. He uses
Hallmark, unabashedly, to bash as the quintessential corporate behemoth
with rules for making rules. He shares with readers Hallmark’s beginnings
when an 18-year-old Hall began a “card company” in 1910 when there was
no such thing as a card company. You feel MacKenzie’s frustration as he
shares how this company began as an innovator, then became a structured
place where answers like “we’ve always done things this way” became the
norm. Because Hallmark’s product requires creative people, the company
ends up with frustrated souls who churn out crazy good ideas that are not
how “we’ve always done things”. MacKenzie, hired as an illustrator, somehow
managed to carve out a place for himself, constantly reinventing his role
at Hallmark. He eventually became a bridge between the creatives and the
linear thinkers in management, accounting, and administration.
He tells how he brainstormed with a team of creatives who were designing
a new workspace and discovered they all wanted – wait for it – rolltop desks.
A couple weeks of combing antique stores led to an individualized space
for each person at a cost below budget, a solution thrilling both the creative
team and the accountants.
Very few of us can just jump ship and go live in wide, open spaces with
no boundaries. MacKenzie describes how he learned to coexist, even thrive,
and understand, balancing the worlds of safety vs freedom. Hallmark is
his metaphor for the world and how we all relate to it. His book is filled
with stories and anecdotes. His doodles litter the pages like someone’s notes
during a conference call – elephants, lines of ducks, stairs climbing up the
page. If nothing else, his art is worthwhile. MacKenzie’s line drawings look
like something a very clever kindergartener might doodle. You think, “Hmm.
If this kid got some lessons, he could really draw and paint someday,” except
his lifetime goal is to keep drawing like a fairly talented kindergartener.
By the end of the book, he gets pretty serious. He has been at Hallmark
30 years. He shares his vision of a company pyramid vs a company tree, and
it is pretty convincing. Then he tries to get us to see what God saw way back
when we were just a zygote floating in fluid. “Would you take this artist’s
canvas with you and paint a masterpiece for me?” God asks the baby just
before it is born. “I’d really appreciate that.”
Whether you are a security lover or a freedom lover, no one else can
paint your masterpiece. MacKenzie does a good job reminding us of that.
What you have to decide is whether or not you color inside the lines
Orbiting the Giant Hairball. A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace
By Gordon MacKenzie, c. 1996
Published by Viking/Penguin Putnam Group, Available at Amazon
For more book reviews and even stuff that isn’t, visit Jacqueline’s
blog: www.thebookbuffet.wordpress.com
“
20 MYFORSYTHMAG.COM VOLUME XI | ISSUE 1