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Re: Attending A Recently Awkward Dinner



Hi
Where's the money?  Ask Steven Spielberg or the guys who sold sue. 

The truth is there's no money in business for most people who work in it. Most 
people who run their own business would be better off getting a normal job. 

It's just that palaeontologists don't pretend that's why they're doing it.  

Christian darkin
Twitter: @Christiandarkin
Www.anachronistic.co.uk

Sent from my iPod

On 19 Oct 2013, at 19:10, dale mcinnes <wdm1949@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Well .. this is going to be a strange one DMLers but .. I thought
> perhaps I'd pass this along for those of you finding yourselves in
> the somewhat awkward moment that I found myself in just recently.
> My family is large. All are quite wealthy. They're all sharks when
> it comes to business. Being family .. we all went out to dinner
> together with other business associates of their's. It was nice to
> see my family together like that [we're all scattered everywhere].
> I was somewhat quiet .. didn't fit in entirely. It was a nice atmosphere
> nevertheless .. when one of these guys .. noticing I was somewhat out of
> the conversation ..turned to me and asked .. "so your brother tells me
> you're into dinosaurs ..palaeontology .."
> The proverbial laughter, chuckles all around [been there too many times].
> Another buiness associate piped up .. "what kind of a field is that ?!?
> Where's the money in that ?!?" More chuckles around the table of about
> a dozen or so.
> One wife of one associate piped in quietly .. "You're embarrassing him"
> Well .. admittedly .. it was awkward .. and I was about to make it more
> so.
> This time I decided .. in a nice [or not so] way to spike the ball back
> into their court. I reasoned they could "throw" but never learned to
> "catch".
> Can't remember his name or educational background but I did ask him what
> business college .. if any .. did he participate in. He told me. I told
> him that obviously they probably don't teach palaeontology as part of your 
> business education [that's the lead in line .. and he took the bait] ..
> He intoned .. "why would they ?!?"
> And this is the mantra that I recited back to this guy :
> - Palaeontology is an historical science
> - It's the study of one of the most successful products ever encountered
>  by man. It is called DNA or Life]
> - It is a product that has survived unscathed for over 3 billion years
> - It is a product that has never become obsolete
> - It's a product that can fit into and still be useful in any new or any
>  concievable environment
> - It never becomes obsolete
> - It takes advantage of any and all adversity
> - It is absolutely resilient to the vagaries of change
> - It adapts quickly without being instructed to do so
> - It's the most complex product ever developed on this planet
> - It was the 1st product ever to successfully use :
>  Mass production
>  Mass distribution
>  Mass differentiation
>  Mass diversification
> - A product able to reverse entropy at will
> - No known product comes even close to this product's performance
> "So let me understand this .. in business school .. they never taught you
> palaeontology .. and why is this ?!?"
> He looked around as if asking for someone to get him out of this awkward 
> position that he had placed himself in. No one asked me anything after that.
> The dinner tasted better than I had hoped for.