Speak for Yourself!
By Ovidiu Catanescu
During my early years in America, I worked as an accountant at Magnecraft, a company that manufactured electrical relays. My boss was a man named John Shino.
One day, I went into John's office to discuss a mistake I had made. It wasn't anything serious, just one of those little mistakes that happen occasionally at work.
After we discussed the problem, I apologized and said:
"I'm sorry, John. Nobody is perfect."
To me, that seemed like a perfectly reasonable statement. After all, who doesn't make mistakes?
The conversation ended, and I returned to my cubicle to continue working.
About a minute later, John appeared beside my desk.
He wasn't angry or upset. Quite the opposite. He looked calm and serious, almost as though he had spent that entire minute carefully considering what I had said.
"You know what, Ovi?" he asked.
I looked up.
"Why don't you speak for yourself?"
And with that, he turned around and walked away.
For a few moments, I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. His remark seemed to come out of nowhere.
Then suddenly, it dawned on me. He was referring to our conversation in his office!
Apparently, John had taken my innocent statement, "Nobody is perfect," rather personally. He seemed to believe that I had no business including him in my general assessment of humanity.
I hadn't realized that admitting my own imperfection required excluding everyone else!
I didn't argue with him. I didn't even try to explain myself. Instead, I picked up the telephone, called my headhunter, and asked him to find me another job. And he did.
A Lesson That Stayed With Me
The funny thing is that this little incident happened many years ago, yet those three words have stayed with me ever since.
Over the years, whenever someone makes a sweeping statement about everybody, and I see an opportunity for a little humor, I sometimes look at them with a perfectly serious expression and say:
"Speak for yourself!"
And every time I use that expression, I remember John Shino standing beside in my cubicle, delivering those words with such seriousness.
In fact, just recently, my friend Mircea posted something about a song on Facebook in Romanian:
"Toți suntem puțin luați…"
("We're all a little crazy…")
I couldn't resist commenting:
"Speak for yourself!"
Then I promised him I would write a true story about that expression. And here it is!
Looking back, I realize that John Shino gave me something much more memorable than an accounting lesson. He gave me a joke that has lasted for decades.
And the funniest part? He wasn't joking!
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