Hard To Imagine.

There are two phrases which really bother me: You’re only limited by your imagination and You have to have tougher skin than that. (Not far behind would be–just let it roll off your shoulders–aaah!).

The first one, “you’re only limited…” infers that you have no imagination…and is usually uttered by some Food Network cook who is showing you how to make meatloaf out of cereal.

How’s this? I’m imagining, right now, that I’m a rich socialite, married to Leonardo DiCaprio.

The second, …”tougher skin…” really gets to me…mostly because I don’t have it; and I don’t know what it means to go out and get tougher skin. This phrase, to me, sort of means…”you’re a coward”. (I always think of snake.)

Recently, a Pet Set client complained that one of our products was not selling, could she return them and get credit. I agreed and reduced the price of her next order.

That decision was viewed by some as “thin skinned” or soft. I just thought it was the fair thing to do. Apparently, the “thick skinned” thing to do was to tell the client…”you bought it, you own it…” or something snarkey like that.

Don’t get me wrong, I can be stubborn, irritable…even, nasty–but I imagine that I will never be able to thicken up my skin…and maybe that means I will not succeed. Maybe failure will toughen me up.

Image: CondeNaste Art.