The two little girls were sitting at this massive desk by the bathrooms at a furniture store (although the store is no longer there, the memories are still clear) – one at the huge leather chair behind the desk, and the other at one of the two chairs on the opposite side. Since I was on my way to the bathroom, I paid them little attention UNTIL I heard the girl on the leather chair say this: How do we make people feel good about themselves?

What?

I stopped dead in my track and turned to see … The voice was young, definitely young … but the statement was uttered with such an adult force to it that I had to see what the situation was that called for this young voice to utter those words. I got a clearer picture of the situation once I actually looked at the scenario. In my haste to go to the bathroom, I had only seen part of the picture. The girl in the leather chair was about 10 years old, with long brown hair that had a long white ribbon in it. She was ever so delicately leafing through an oversized leather-bound catalog that glowed vividly with bright colors, turning the pages with such grace and style that only her index finger seemed to “will” the book to flip its own pages. Her face was stolid, yet soft and engaging, her lips pursed slightly as she pretended to carefully examine each page before flipping it over with a simple wave.

The other girl sitting across from her was a younger girl, and looking very bored. Impatiently bored. It reminded me of all the people in line at the grocery store as the little old lady at the front of the line proceeds to whip out her checkbook and ever so slowly writes a check for her cat food. She looked THAT bored … and perhaps the eye rolling was also a give away.

Back to the prim and proper girl flipping through her massive book: “So, (pause for effect as she is repeating the question for her bored audience) HOW do we make people feel GOOD about themselves?” I must have had a ten dollar grin on my face as I watched this scene unfold. It was odd to see this as it was, but being someone who has to inspire and motivate people in a corporation on a daily basis, this was indeed a question that we constantly struggled with all the time. Not only figuring out how to make people feel good about themselves, but also how to translate that into workplace productivity so that it benefits the operations of the organization.

Indeed. How DO we make people feel good about themselves? The ten million dollar question is a heavy and thought-provoking one, crippling even the likes of uber motivational monster Tony Robbins. For all the experts, we still don’t have a formula for this one. HOW? And there was the answer, from a bored little girl. The one thing that makes people feel good about themselves.

She looked prim-and-proper-girl in the face and with a determined looked uttered the answer to every leader and manager’s life-long dilemma: “I want to be boss.”

There you have it. I got it right away. In order for any of us to be happy, we have to be in charge of our own destiny. We have to be, individually, masters of our own fate. In control of the choices so often are made for us by others, like corporations and governments, spouses and children, duty and honor, and all those outside forces. I WANT TO BE BOSS. That should be the battle cry of the downtrodden, the disenfranchised, the forgotten, the underdogs … the common man (or woman if you are one)! I want to be boss. I want to be the one making the decisions and the choices. I need to be the one that is held accountable and responsible for the choices made, whether they are good or bad. I will proudly hold the banner up and say “Here I am, I chose this, now herald my success or damn my failures!” Either way, I am in control. I am boss.

Before I could process any of those thoughts, miss prim-and-proper retorted with two words: “You’re fired.” and closed her massive book with a thud. She got up and walked away, leaving “she-who-would-be-boss” following behind her down the stairs. I was stunned. There it all was, summed up in a nice and neat package directly in front of me, delivered by two pint-sized actors reflecting the world’s stage back to me: I want to be boss / You’re fired.

Is this the way children saw us in our daily activities as would-be adults? Is this what they hear as they scurry in and out of earshot of adults? In their young and impressionable minds, could it be, that they understand that all we really want as adults is to be in charge? AND in the end, have they learned to crush the spirits of those who would be king so we can continue to stay on top?

Now, I don’t want to draw the way too obvious comparison of the human spirit and the bone-crushing blows we endure on a daily basis when we attempt to grab the reins of our own chariot rides. That would be TOO easy. But I wonder of this is the same feeling that the often disillusioned worker has deep inside of them? The fight was there, the heart was there, the desire was strong, and the spirit was definitely willing … they just got handed the pink slip too soon.

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