Cherry blossom season in Japan
April in Japan. The cherry trees are in full blossom...
Every space around the cherry trees is carpeted with bright blue plastic sheets and groups of office workers, students, and all sorts of people are busy gorging themselves and getting wasted, singing karaoke and kicking up a racket without paying much attention to the cherry blossoms.
Quite a few of the revellers will have chuckled about the old proverb while tucking into their grub,
"Dumplings over flowers desu ne! Kampai!"
The modern cartoon picture card for this proverb gets to the heart of the matter. A salaryman is enjoying a beer and tucking into some "dango" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dango ) oblivious to the cherry blossom on the tree behind him.
When I first heard this proverb I took it to be a criticism of this sort of behaviour, a bit like saying "pearls before swine," but I got it wrong. A closer English equivalent might be "substance over form." The booklet that comes with the more expensive card deck offers this explanation:
Utility is better than refinement. Substance is better than show.
Business Application
All those cherry blossoms are strumpets of nature. No sooner have they appeared on the scene and allured you with their freshness and charm than they are falling petal by petal from the bough. Here today, gone tomorrow.
In the online business and crypto scene it seems to be cherry blossom season every day! Oh look, here's a bright new offer just been launched. Let's drop everything and check it out.
Wiser heads will ignore the razmataz and focus on a few tried and tested, sustainable, evergreen products and services, the ones that offer substantial value over empty promises, and that put money in your pocket and dumplings and beer on the table.
Cheers!
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus
#Index4Index