More than a million viewers have watched a YouTube video posted by law student Brian Finkelstein, who filmed a Comcast technician who fell asleep on his couch in 2006, waiting on hold for help from the Comcast home office to fix an Internet problem. This video is now the top result when typing “Comcast” into the search box on YouTube.
Wait! Before you go to YouTube, what was in your head when you read that excerpt?
…
When I first read it, I saw a large burly man in a big, bluish-gray zip-up suit, completely reclined on a cheap couch – neck thrown back, mouth slightly ajar, ear to the phone.
When I read it again to my parents, I could hear his snoring and a female operator listing hold options to the tune of cheesy jazz music.
When I read it a third time to my sister, the Comcast guy also had his hand in a half eaten bag of potato chips. I guess he had taken it from the law student’s kitchen…
Then we all went to YouTube.
What a letdown. The 58 second video was funny like a Shakespearian comedy is funny – the plot was ironic and unexpected. But it was just a Comcast “expert” wearing a red shirt and sitting on a couch with his eyes closed, while some angry messages from the student to Comcast appear. That was it.
The sentence on its own though had made for the best comedy sketch in my mind.
A picture might be worth a thousand words. A motion picture might be worth millions. But words – words are truly worth an infinite amount of imagination.
Ever feel like we underestimate that idea these days?
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Excerpt taken from “Groundswell.” By Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2008.
Coming from someone who has had her fair share of “Comcastic” mishaps I certainly feel this guy’s anger. I have had several tantrums about the subject myself (many of which end with me throwing the remote against the wall or shaking my wireless router box until my face turns blue). Even writing this right now I can feel my face getting hot. Many people are passionate about music or books or sports or whatever but I am passionate about this!!! I wouldn’t call it frustration. I’m not frustrated that everyone at Comcast seems to be completely incompetent, I’m shocked! That’s definitely it! I’m shocked that I can’t find one person who can tell me why the picture on my TV is purple or why my internet keeps coming in and out. Ok I’m getting a little carried away. I should stop ranting now before I break my laptop because I’m typing so hard.
So my old professor use to say many things in class, much of which were the same things he said the previous week. The one thing that he always said was that words are far more powerful than anything in the world. He would say that “words create wars, words save souls, but most importantly, words are free!”
I think of lyrics when I think of words, the right words can change your feeling and being entirely. The right words can give you you the strenght to get through the impossible.
I really liked this post, I agree with you completely!