IN AN ORCHARD at the far edge of the Woodland lived an entrepreneur. Whenever this entrepreneur introduced one of his new gizmos, everybody who was anybody in the Woodland (which was everyone), wanted to have one, even if they didn't know what it did. And nobody seemed to care if his new gizmo was the same as the old one only smaller and a different designer color.
Success had brought him tremendous fame and fortune, but had also given the entrepreneur a monumentally oversized ego which, in this Woodland, is really saying something.
One day the entrepreneur went into his workshop and ordered his two tinkerers to come up with a new gizmo.
"Make it even smaller than that last one!" he hollered, "And give it a new color! And I want it tomorrow!"
When he'd gone, the tinkerers looked at each other in disbelief.
"Smaller?!" said the first tinkerer, "If we made one any smaller you couldn't see it!"
"Well, if it's invisible," said the other, "At least we don't have to come up with a new color for it!"
The tinkerers laughed, then realizing they'd both had the same idea, got to work.
When the entrepreneur came in the next morning, the tinkerers were waiting for him.
"All right," he growled, "What've you got for me?"
The first tinkerer thrust out his hand, palm up, as if holding something, and said proudly, "The New Gizmo!"
The entrepreneur looked down at the tinkerer's empty hand, but before he could say anything, the other tinkerer held out his hand and asked, "Maybe you like this color better?"
The entrepreneur squinted at the first tinkerer's hand, then the other's, then back again.
"I, can't quite, uh..." stammered the entrepreneur.
"Choose between them?" interrupted the first tinkerer. "I know, they're both such amazing colors."
"And you don't have to decide," said the other, "It becomes any color you want it to be!"
"That's because this gizmo works from your own brainpower!" said the first tinkerer, "The higher your I.Q., the more it does!"
"That's right," said the other, "You have to be really smart just to be see this thing!"
"I see," said the entrepreneur, even though he didn't.
He said he saw it because these two tinkerers had produced many amazing gizmos that had made the entrepreneur serious piles of cash, so if they said they'd created a gizmo you had to be smart to see, they probably had but he was way too proud to admit that they were smarter than him.
"You've really outdone yourself this time!" said the first tinkerer.
"Yes, yes I have," muttered the entrepreneur, adding, "What does this one do?"
"Everything the old gizmos did," said the other tinkerer, "Plus anything else you want it to."
When the entrepreneur unveiled the New Gizmo to reporters, they gazed at his empty palm blankly for a moment before he exclaimed, "It runs on brainpower! Only those with above-average intelligence can see it, much less make it work!"
"I see," the reporters said, even though they didn't. Not a one of them was about to admit that they might not have above-average intelligence. And none of them did.
The day the New Gizmo was released, the personal assistants of the Woodland's A-Listers (and even a few B-listers, who'd got past security), lined up outside the entrepreneur's workshop.
As a New Gizmo was dropped into their hands, they looked up suspiciously at the tinkerer who'd just pretended to put it there.
"Oh, don't worry," the tinkerer told each of them, confidently, "Your boss will see it," adding with a chuckle, "You can bet on it."
"I see," the personal assistants said, even though they didn't.
As the personal assistants handed over the New Gizmo to their bosses, they'd nervously blurt out, "It runs on brainpower! You have to be really smart just to see it!"
"I see," their bosses said, even though they didn't.
Now, usually when a new gizmo came out the Woodland's movers and shakers took every opportunity — and made up even more — to show off that they had one.
This time, however, everybody was canceling breakfast meetings, lunch meetings, dinner meetings and even staying home from work altogether rather than risk anybody finding out they weren't really smart enough to see it. Restaurants and offices sat empty.
Moving and shaking in the Woodland came to a standstill.
As it happens, the entrepreneur had a competitor who lived at the other end of the Woodland. For every gizmo the entrepreneur made, this competitor made a gadget very much like it.
The competitor was a very smart guy who, while no slouch in the plus size-ego department, didn't need as much stroking.
A reporter brought him a New Gizmo and asked for his opinion of it.
"I don't see it," he said, because he didn't.
"And," the competitor continued, "Not because I'm not smart enough to see it but because there's no "it" to see!" adding, "Honestly, what is wrong with you people?"
Just like that, the buzz around the Woodland went from how fabulous the New Gizmo was to how it didn't work.
"It was okay at first," everyone was saying now, "Then it kind of flickered and went all invisible. I can barely see it, anymore. I'm not even sure where it is half the time!"
When the entrepreneur heard about this he was furious and burst into the workshop demanding answers.
"It couldn't be a design flaw," said the first tinkerer.
"It must be a manufacturing defect," said the other.
All of the the New Gizmos were recalled. Once they'd been "returned" to his workshop, the entrepreneur snarled at the two tinkerers, "Figure out what went wrong and fix it. Or else!"
The two tinkerers looked at the corner of the workshop where they'd pretended to stack the recalled gizmos and then nervously at each other. They knew if they told the entrepreneur the truth that they’d never tinker in the Woodland again.
Then they had an idea.
When the entrepreneur came in the next morning, the tinkerers were waiting for him.
"All right, what've you got for me?" he growled.
"You won't believe it!" said the first tinkerer.
"Try me," replied the entrepreneur.
"They're gone," said the other, "They've been stolen!"
The entrepreneur's jaw dropped, "Stolen!?" he gasped.
"Yep, “ replied the first tinkerer, “All of them.”
"And the blueprints," said the other, "They're gone, too. We could never make that particular New Gizmo again without those plans!"
The entrepreneur didn't say anything for what seemed like a long time, then he asked, "Any clues?"
"Not a one," said the first tinkerer.
"Whoever pulled this off," said the other, "Was pretty clever."
"I'll say," the entrepreneur said dryly, as he brushed past the tinkerers on his way to call his claims adjuster.
The robbery was never solved and everyone who'd bought a New Gizmo got a rebate good toward the purchase or upgrade of an older gizmo which was now available in several designer colors.
Every once in a while, a New Gizmo shows up for sale on eBay, but you can tell that it’s a fake just by looking at it.
Moral: You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but if you can get them to fool themselves you're really on to something.
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