Readers who did not grow up in the seventies and eighties will probably not understand the ginsu reference in the title. Commercials for ginsu knives would present the first knife and showcase what it would do. Then the announcer would ask “how much would you pay?” and follow that quickly with the statement “but wait!…there’s more!”
Dad used a similar pattern when dispensing wisdom. He was an advocate of the philosophy that it is more effective to break lessons down into manageable bite sizes than to try to force feed them all at once. His experience was that leading and teaching were always more effective when information was parceled out in a gradual and thoughtful process.
An example would be how he tried to teach me not to verbally attack or complain about others when disagreements occur. The “first knife” he showcased was the tried and true maxim that “if you point fingers at others then there are three fingers pointing at you.” He challenged me to examine the man in the mirror first.
He would allow a moment for me to reflect on how much I was “willing to pay” to embrace better conflict management skills and then he would close with the “but wait, there’s more” segment of the lesson.
He wrapped up the lesson with this statement – “If you will allow only your own point of view to be a valid or valuable point of view then you only have yourself to blame when you don’t like the scenery.”