Sixteen years ago, I started performing for the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. My job was to sit in front of the restaurant on a park bench talking to tourists and potential shrimp consumers. My task was pretty simple. I engaged people in conversation and created a gump-like experience for them. It was a soft sell: Come sit with Forrest, take a picture, enjoy yourself, and if you’re hungry we have great shrimp, burgers, etc. It worked perfectly.
Except … I was asked one question that initially I didn’t have a good answer. I tried telling the pure truth, but that didn’t work out so well. So I created my own ‘little white lie.’ You’ll remember in the movie when Mama encouraged Forrest to promote the Flex-O-Ping-Pong Paddle. She acknowledged that it was just a little white lie and wasn’t hurting anyone.
Here is the question that I was asked and the little white lie I created to better fulfill my mandate of creating a gump-like experience for the tourists visiting Cannery Row in Monterey, California.
Full Truth
Q: Are you Forrest Gump?
A: Yes.
Q: The one they made the movie about?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you star in the movie?
A: No!
This literally caused a young lady to shout out “AUGHHH!” and walk away very disappointed. I clearly needed a better answer.
Little White Lie
Q: Are you Forrest Gump?
A: Yes.
Q: The one they made the movie about?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you star in the movie?
A: No! I’m the real Forrest Gump. The one they made the movie about. The other man was an actor they hired to play me for the movie. And you know what? … they hired him because he looks a lot like me.
Q: Why didn’t you play in the movie?
A: I’m not an actor. I’m only Forrest Gump. I only know how to catch shrimp.
This answer gave the kids an answer that didn’t leave them disappointed.
Now a funny thing happened as a result of this … I ended up telling that version of the story so many times that adults sometimes even believed it.
I figured it’s just a little white lie and it’s not hurting anyone.
At this point in my life, I’m not so sure about the wisdom of telling little white lies. The problem is they tend to grow and become big lies.
Maybe the trick for a little white lie to be OK is that it must only be for a single purpose and must not be allowed to expand … otherwise, it stops meeting the criterion of not hurting anyone.
What do you think about telling little white lies?
If you tell one little white lie, can you keep it from growing?
What boundaries do you define for yourself for telling little white lies?
Next Blog Title: Genetic Luck
Next Blog Date: April 5, 2012