In 1960, two men made a bet.
There was only $50 on the line but millions of people would benefit from their little wager.
The first man, Bennett Cerf, was the founder of publishing firm, Random House. The second man was Theo Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss.
Cerf made a bet with Dr. Seuss that he couldn’t write an entertaining children’s book using 50 different words or less.
Dr. Seuss took the bet and won.
The result was a little book called ‘Green Eggs and Ham’.
“…Do you like green eggs and ham?” asks Sam-I-am. In a box or with a fox? In a house or with a mouse? In a boat or with a goat? On a train or in a tree?…” Sam asks persistently.
Since publication, Green Eggs and Ham has sold more than eight million copies, making it one of the best- selling children’s books in history.
And then this week, it was announced six books of Dr Seuss would no longer be published because of racist undertones and insensitive imagery.
But Green Eggs and Ham is one book I hope doesn’t get thrown on the scrapheap because there’s a powerful lesson in it, not just for children.
It’s the power of constraints. [1]
What Dr Seuss demonstrates is that by setting limits on yourself, you can sometimes deliver better results than no limits.
Constraints can inspire some of the greatest ideas.
For example…
A time poor parent will get a lot more done than someone with plenty of time.
A short basketball player will figure out more ways to score than a tall basketball player.
A prisoner will look for more ways to ‘break-out’ than an officer with a set of keys.
A web designer who limits herself to two colours will create much better ideas to ‘Wow!’ an audience than the web designer who doesn’t limit himself.
An entrepreneur on a tight budget will experience bigger breakthroughs than someone with an ‘open cheque book’.
Being resourceful is more valuable than resources. It’s what got us through COVID.
Pre COVID, most people thought it wasn’t possible to work from home. But lock-down blew that myth out of the office and now we have a boom in sea and tree changes.
But here’s the thing. The videotelephony market was already saturated. Tech such as Zoom had been around for years.
COVID constrained us temporarily but opened our minds permanently. And history will show it created some of our best and biggest breakthroughs.
Dr. Seuss was given 50 words. That was the size of his canvas. His job was to see what kind of picture he could paint with those words.
I’m glad he won the bet.
Have a great weekend!
Adam
[1]https://jamesclear.com/dr-seuss
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