Most idioms are common, largely because language needs to be shared to be valuable. We all understand the saying “shag on a rock”, whereas “pidgeon on a boulder” would only be greeted with some confused stares.
However, we all have personal sayings that we think are clever or useful, but just haven’t caught on, yet. For me, there are two I often use at work:
An octopus picked every winner of the World Cup.
Context: In 2010, Paul, an octopus, picked the successful outcome of all of Germany’s wins in the Fifa World Cup, as well as Spain’s eventual triumph. Octopodes are clever, but to our knowledge aren’t able to pick the future. Paul was, in a word, lucky. Actually, he was VERY lucky, as the odds of this occurring a 1/256, or just under 0.4%.
Usage: This idiom captures the idea that in any environment where multiple decisions or events occur, there will always be outliers that exists, at least partially due to luck, and that there will ALWAYS be someone who arrives at those destinations.
This is particularly helpful in the VC world, where a particular fund may invest in winner after winner. Perhaps they DO have some secret sauce that allows them to keep discovering the next Uber, or perhaps they are just enjoying a period of luck. This saying reminds us that when it comes to picking the future, luck plays a role, and that highly successful (or disastrous!) outcomes could be a result of a short-term hot streak.
Why I like it: There are many alternatives to that adequately capture this idea. Flipping a coin to heads eight times in a row doesn’t mean you’re a master coin flipper, but I think the Octopus reference is pithier and most importantly, draws a wry smile semi-regularly. The downsides is that Paul was doing his auguring 15 years ago, and while he may be a Julius Caesar figure amongst his eight-legged brethren, he is slowly edging towards irrelevancy, particularly among the youths.
Tomorrow I’ll write about Saying #2, but in the meantime, feel free to reply to this email and let me know what YOUR favourite personal saying is, and why it should catch on.
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