A proper cup of tea - Who is really at fault ?

Johnny Foreigner (Photo credit: chrstphrwng)

Although my blog is usually generally in good taste and often about fun things like energy management or issues that affect startups, which judging by the likes - diggs , and other social media feedback to the left is statistically quite unlikely to be your "cup of tea". 

Sometimes it has amazing pictures . However, just once in a while up pops a business topic that deserves your serious attention - and I must address it here.

There is racism, there is humour and then there is the serious distinction between: 

KOBE, JAPAN - NOVEMBER 03: A tea ceremony master makes a green tea during the outdoor tea ceremony at Zuihoji Temple Park on November 3, 2011 in Kobe, Japan. The tea ceremony began in 1950 to commemorate the 14th century governor Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his tea master Sen no Rikyu, who are said to visit this area and enjoyed tea ceremonies. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

A Proper Cup of Tea (Photo credit: James Shade)

"A Proper Cup of Tea" 

(note the polite capitalisation)

 and ...

your typical continental 'Jonny foreigner' 

- European 

tea-making behaviour'

which has never been anything other than dreadful !

(or so my wife tells me - I don't often drink the stuff)

So I will put in my early defence before I continue...

I  work and live in Switzerland (I really love it here, have great neighbours and appreciate their sense of humour - Some Swiss people will even admit to being bankers - I mean how self-deprecating is that ?).

My best-man is German. Naturally he cannot handle the simple question "wouldn't you like a proper cup of tea" - and may answer "No" and then go on to explain in a voice straight out of "Das Boot".

 "but, I would like a cup of tea, - So when you ask me if I would not like a cup of tea the answer must surely be no"). 

When he answers "yes I wouldn't"  - I really do get confused.

One sister sister lives in France, wife comes from Zimbabwe so I can claim to love people and places from all over - 

BUT..

If you are a "Jonny Foreigner" you have no clue as to how to make a "proper cup of tea" !

This is probably NOT your fault ! -  If you cared enough, you would find it is easy, but you do have the inalienable right to care as little about tea making as I care about bias regarding International Tiddlywinks Organisations on Wikipedia - allow me to quote :

However, the modern competitive adult game of tiddlywinks made a strong comeback at the University of Cambridge in 1955. The modern game uses far more complex rules and a consistent set of high-grade equipment. The rest of this article concerns the adult game. 

Really - Do you think so ?  :) 

So - to the point of this post,...

There are as many different ways to make a proper cup of tea as there are British people, but funnily enough only British people about know them. 

Here is one example with which I can hugely disagree . http://www.propercupoftea.com/make-a-proper-cup-of-tea/  

and as every decent chap will be aware George Orwell and Tea science are still at loggerheads.

So as I come to the end of this rant, allow me to teach one thing...

1 - The water has to be boiling !

Not "luke - , after you've stubbed out your silly Gauloises cigarrettes with the logo that looks like Asterix's helmet, and you've sent another three text messages to your Mum with whom you still live probably ! - warm "

But really, really HOT !

Thank you rant over - time for a nice .....

If you have nothing better to do, you could go on and read about what I call auto-congratulatory-green-benchmarking - its a shambles !

Denial "AND LIE" anagram for business

lake constance 2500K (Photo credit: tom_focus)

The following wise words are a recent favourite of mine.

In the original German by Martin Walser:

Wer mehr sagt, als er tut, predigt. 
Wer weniger sagt, als er tut, lügt. 
Wer sagt, was er tut, ist eitel. 
Wer tut, was er sagt, ist gut.

German writer Martin Walser during a book presentation in Aachen, Germany (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was given this by my colleague Andreas as we passed through the beautiful town of Wasserberg am Bodensee on our way to a meeting in Munich on a day that could almost have argued for climate change on its own .

In this sleepy village, Walser started his highly politicized literary life.  Until then, and like you now (perhaps), with Lake Constance looking glorious from the train, I had never heard them.

They came up as we discussed important company values and corporate culture (or we had been discussing) and this is certainly why I these words stuck.

In English (freely and not very poetically translated):

He who tells, more than he does, preaches.
He who tells, less than he does, lies.
He who tells, what he does, boasts.
He who does, what he says, is good.



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It is easy for us to tell others how they should do things, especially in our consultancy hats, and in our marketing hats; that we should always over-deliver on our promises. In reality, this is not always possible, so it smacks of hypocrisy or "holier than thou" - so we will try to keep the preaching to a minimum!


Sometimes we screw things up, and we find it hard to admit but I noticed;

denial is an anagram of "AND LIE" !

So we think it's better to admit the truth, ask for forgiveness and re-double our efforts.

When we are guilty of telling of our deeds and victories (and we do - see for example here), then we should restrain ourselves, but better to boast than to lie.

When we do deliver what we say we will deliver (and we aim very high) we may  feel a little self-righteous or act pleased with ourselves - and perhaps we should not - but surely we may feel good inside and we think that's fine.

If you can accept us " flaws and all " please get in touch.

If you can suggest more that we can aim for in terms of words and deeds - let us know in the comments and/or link up with me on Disqus and Engag.io.

So let me get you started with a great example from scripture (at risk of preaching:)
(wisdom is available from the bible to the schoolyard and it is welcome whatever the source  )


 - another James 2:18 wrote : 
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.