"Good morning," said the owner of the amusement park as she welcomed the designer into her office. "Please take a seat and help yourself to a biscuit. James will be bringing the drinks any time now."
"Thank you," said the designer. He was excited about showing off the design of his new roller coaster. It was revolutionary. He was sure that it would go down a storm. The drinks arrived and the designer helped himself to a black coffee from a shiny silver jug. As he drank and munched on a biscuit, he made chit chat with the owner and her assistant James about how the season was going. When the drinks were finished, they cleared a large space on the desk so that the designer could roll out his plans.
He brought out a detailed plan of the new roller coaster as well as an artist’s impression of what it would look like three dimensionally.
"Is that it?" the owner asked. She looked at her assistant James with her eyebrows raised.
"That’s it!" answered the designer confidently. "This is going to revolutionise roller coasters all over the world. You can be the very first. The pioneers."
"But the track just goes straight up an then stays up there? No twists and turns? No plunging headlong downwards, perhaps with some kind of splashing in water?" asked the owner further.
"No! That’s the genius of it! People don’t want all that uncertainty. They want to get high. They want to get high and stay high. Who would want anything else? What is the point of getting high just to come back down again? We haven’t bothered with all that nonsense. We are giving the people exactly what they want!"
"Hmmm. Are you sure that’s what people want? The roller coaster that we have now has ups, downs, twists, turns, splashes, dark tunnels, turning upside down. It is pretty popular. Just go and have a look at the queue." The owner pointed towards the office window.
"I’ve seen the queue on my way here. Thank you. Of course it is popular - because of all those peaks it has! Imagine how much more popular it will be if people can go up there and stay up there for the whole ride! One long lovely peak."
The designer remained wide eyed with enthusiasm and James began rubbing his chin and looking at the ceiling, pondering the idea.
But the owner had been in the business a long time. She knew what her customers wanted and she knew exactly why roller coasters were so popular.
"Thank you for your time," she said to the designer. "Someone will get back to you in the next couple of days. In the meantime, feel free to spend as long as you want in the park."
The designer picked up his plans and looking a little crestfallen, he headed out of the office door towards his car.
The Happy Cow website and all articles on it are created entirely voluntarily and free of charge. However, if you feel that anything on the site has been of value to you, you may wish to make a voluntary contribution to the upkeep of the site. Click on the 'Donate' button below.
If you have an inspiring tale or some interesting philosophy to share with us, please feel free to e-mail your ideas to
contributions@happycow.org.uk.