A dream come true! Time Travel!

An efficient marketer would have a bank of pre-written newsletters to send out on Friday mornings. I usually try not to wait till the last minute, and usually write this on Thursdays. But, because we’re in Bali, I was really tickled by the idea that if I wait till Friday afternoon, I’ll be writing it after it’s been sent to you on Friday morning. I am not an efficient marketer. But I have a lot more fun.

When I was my second round of formative years – college – I read a quote that I still hold close to my heart. 

When you sacrifice beauty for efficiency, you get what you deserve.

I had to look it up this morning so I could tell you where that quote came from… Tom Robbins in Still Life with Woodpecker. 

America makes continuous sacrifices at the mighty altar of efficiency. Everything has to “pencil.”  No unnecessary lines on the spreadsheet. As an artist, I felt liberated by that Tom Robbins quote. Granted permission to do the wacky things that make no sense, but make me happy.   Now, I’m not against efficiency… I insist on keeping the coffee and the coffee cups as close to the espresso machine as possible. No beauty sacrificed there.  

Art, care, service are not efficient by their very nature. The most efficient way to make dinner for your family is not the most loving and caring. When Andy Warhol painted a soup can, we were delighted because it was as inefficient as could be. Starbucks made us all fall in love because they were the first to customize our coffee for us… non-fat with whipped cream and cinnamon steamed in the milk? No problem… and we swooned. Not too long ago they replaced real espresso machines for a push-button thing. Efficiency won. Greatness and delight lost. That was a bean-counter’s decision. 

(On the note of bean counters, my CPA, Dana is THE BEST. She totally rolls with me when I tell her that I write all my orders on paper because I don’t want to be clicking around some computer thing when I’m sitting with my clients. She is not a bean counter.) 

My point is this… Don’t let the bean-counters, the suits, the “experts” talk you out of your fun and beauty. Efficiency isn’t worth it. And this message is coming from the future, so you have to believe it! 

Sampai jumpa!