Get Joey's free weekly beBetter Leadership blog:

beBetter Blog

Useful Idioms and Brilliant Insights From Pop Joe – Too Much Sugar

By Joey Havens

Share this post:

So far, I’ve shared two of our favorite Pop Joe idioms, “You can get happy in those same britches that you got sad in,” and “Don’t make me pull this car over.” The third in this four-part series is one that many of us frequently hear or use but I wonder how often we stop and think about how powerful it could be in our business. Any time that Pop Joe thought something might be more trouble than it was worth he would say, “Too much sugar for a dime.” Now I have no idea where this saying started but I know Pop Joe picked it up and used it frequently around the house. Heck, I find myself saying it frequently when I am confronted with something that is frustrating me or appears to be overly cumbersome.

How powerful would these six words be if we used them to evaluate our current processes and policies? We might find ourselves freeing up some time, money and resources to focus on more strategic things that are worth the trouble. What if we empowered our team members to challenge the status quo when they were frustrated or could not see the benefit of what they were doing? “Too much sugar for a dime” could have a powerful effect in helping our firms move away from legacy thinking and processes and challenge the way we are working.

How many things do we do just because we always have? How much information are we compiling and pouring over that really provides us with no relevant insights on what we need to be doing? Do you have anything in your firm that is simply “too much sugar for a dime?”