Do Not Eat Printer Toner

Last night I was reading a hilarious column by Jim Rutz called ‘Eating rocks may lead to broken teeth’. In it, he was detailing the oddball warning labels on various products. It brought tears to my eyes it was so funny, I think you’ll like it too.

Here are a few of my favorites:

• ”Eating rocks may lead to broken teeth” (on Popcorn Rock, a novelty rock garden set).
• ”May contain small parts” (on a frisbee). That explains why the darned things won’t fly straight for me. I never found those teeny control buttons.
• ”Do not place this product into any electronic equipment” (on a gift basket holding a chocolate CD).
• ”Shin pads cannot protect any part of the body they do not cover” (on shin guards for bicyclists).
• ”Do not eat toner” (on a cartridge for a laser printer).

Ultimately, what these dumb labels represent are lawsuits or potential lawsuits from people who don’t have common sense or an idea about taking personal responsibility. Although we can laugh at the seemily ridiculous ideas, if we look deeper, we see that probably someone did eat rocks and sued for their broken teeth. Someone probably did hurt their elbow and sue the maker of the shin guards. And perhaps more than a few people may have thought a chocolate CD would play real music.

A few years ago I was irritated to find out that in our area, kids can’t play on playground merry-go-rounds. They have all been removed from public parks. Why? Because some kid somewhere got hurt on them. The story goes a boy was standing on one and his father started spinning the merry-go-round as fast as it would go. The kid lost his balance and fell, centripetal force threw him off injuring him. A few lawsuits later and the parks and recreation started removing them. After all, it is the park’s fault…right? If the merry-go-round wasn’t there, the father could have never used it to hurt his child.

I bought a cup of coffee this morning with a warning label “Careful, the beverage you’re about to enjoy is extremely hot.” Is that really necessary? I remember when some woman sued McDonalds because of hot coffee. So for self preservation, if you serve hot coffee you need to warn people that their hot coffee is hot.

You might wonder what all this has to do with goal setting and success. Actually everything. Achieving big goals takes a strong sense of responsibility, anticipation and foresight. Succeeding means understanding the laws of cause and effect. If you put X effort in, you get Y out in benefit. If you are thoughtful and careful with your plans you’ll get more time to dedicate to effort to achieve your goals.

These are extreme examples of people who don’t have a sense of resposibility for their actions. Yet we can still use their examples to reinforce our own dedication. You can think, “I’m not going to ever eat rocks. But not only that, I’m going to take it a step further and use the rock eating example as a way to remind myself that I am responsible for all of my outcomes.” If I’m not making enough money, that’s my responsibility, not my employer’s. If I don’t have the car I’d like to drive, it’s not the dealership’s negligence, it’s my responsibility to position myself so I can buy it.

Taking responsibility is a tough step for many. It’s easy to blame others. But it is an important step toward getting the work done that success requires.

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