Coffee Breath

“Coffee breath?”

“Of course I’ve got coffee breath,” said Mrs Stone. “I need coffee to survive.”

“What do you do, Mrs Stone?”

“I’m a teacher.”

“You’ll go far then, Mrs Stone. Everyone I know, who becomes a great leader, drinks plenty of coffee.”

“You’re generalising,” said Mrs Stone. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“You look, Mrs Stone. You see if the great leaders in your organisation drink plenty of coffee.”

A few months later.

“I think you were onto something,” said Mrs Stone.

“Of course.”

“I observed. I didn’t agree at first. Statistically, your theory is not true.”

*Carry on, Mrs Stone.”

“You see, I looked at all the senior leaders and noticed that lots of them drink coffee. But there were also many that didn’t.”

“So, Mrs Stone, is it all about numbers?”

“That was the thing. No. You see, the ones that didn’t drink coffee, I wouldn’t trust any of them.”

“So your trust in people depends on what coffee they drink, Mrs Stone.”

“No, yes, maybe. You see, I have lots of friends who don’t drink coffee. Some creative minds. Brilliant people. But the senior leaders that don’t drink coffee, most of them were horrible people.”

*Are you sure, Mrs Stone. I never intended you to generalise so much. That wasn’t the lesson.”

*What was the lesson?” asked Mrs Stone.

“I just wanted you to be your own type of leader.”

“Do you mean, the type that drinks too much coffee.”

“I mean a good and a great leader. But if you do have nice coffee, well, I won’t be sad about that.”

“I think I get it,” said Mrs Stone. “I’m just going to be myself and see what happens and drink a bucketful of coffee in the process. You won’t see me without a coffee cup.”

“Good luck, Mrs Stone.”

“Thank you, Mr Dragon,” Mrs Stone replied.

Yes, Mrs Stone was getting advice from a dragon. A very wise dragon and very friendly dragon.

Don’t judge a book by its cover.

But, more importantly, don’t annoy the dragon. Otherwise, coffee breath will be the least of your worries.