Don't Give Pearls To Pigs?
The Idea:
The words “do not cast your pearls before swine” sound harsh. But you shouldn’t feed pork to pearl either. A wrong customer is a wrong customer.
Why it matters:
As a creator, you’ll always find people who don’t appreciate your work. While you shouldn’t take it personally, there is also no need to put moral judgment on these people. Instead, spend more energy on finding the people who love your work, and serve them the best you can.
The story:
I returned from a trip to Hawaii with my parents two months ago. My dad, a history buff, had never been to the islands. So taking him to Pearl Harbor was the highlight of my year. Seeing the sparkle in his eyes when he touched the WWII airplanes and stepped on the battleships made me want to be his son all over again, starting with my first cry.
Now, there is one thing we don’t see eye-to-eye: food. I LOVE Kalua Pork, the traditional Hawaiian dish where they smoke salty shredded pork for days before serving them at luaus. So when I ordered Kalua Pork for my parents, I expected them to love it too. Well, it went like this:
Me: How is it?
Dad: Don’t like it. It’s so salty. If I want salt, I’ll just eat it out of a jar.
Me: But you won’t get the pork then.
Dad: OK, then I’ll eat my own pork while eating the salt.
Me: Isn’t that just Kalua pork, what you are having now?
Dad: Sure. But I won’t have to pay for this expensive food.
Well, now you know a conversation between an Asian father and son always ends in something being overpriced.
Anyway, I love my dad. I genuinely think he’s the coolest guy on earth. But he didn’t like the food I loved. Do I take it personally? Of course not. Does that say anything about his character? Absolutely not. He’s nothing less than a masterpiece dad because of his food preference.
The Bible says, “do not cast your pearls before swine.”
I often hear people use this phrase to describe people who don’t enjoy the work we’ve created, or the good intention we’ve given out. And we often put moral judgment on them for not understanding and appreciating beauty. I mean… “pearl” and “swine” are pretty self-explanatory.
But I beg to differ on this interpretation. I believe there is no inherent evil for people not liking what we like. Everyone should be free to like or hate any creation, no matter how we personally feel about them.
Too many creators waste valuable time convincing distractors to like our work. Instead, the time should be spent on understanding the people who love and promote our work, so we can improve and serve them even better. These are the people we should care about.
Haters gonna hate. It’s 100% correct. But haters aren’t bad people (in most cases). Their hating is based on their taste, personality, upbringing, cultural background, and even DNA. Most of them are good people. They just don’t like what we like.
So instead of casting the phrase “do not cast your pearls before swine” on them, how about “do not give pork to pearls?”
Or in my case: don’t give Kalua pork to a pearly dad.
