I have literally translated the word “Pappnase” from my native German language, as I simply was not able to find a word with the exact same meaning in the English language. Does this mean that English speakers are more serious people? That could potentially be possible. I have met a bunch of corporate individuals who are so self-indulged by their own being that I feel for them.
Life is short, enjoy it and don’t put yourself under pressure to always having to find someone else to blame. You will find that blaming yourself and taking responsibility can be quite liberating. I once totally messed up a job interview. It was almost sad, however, I did have to laugh afterwards. I honestly believe my interview partner probably thought I am not from this planet. Was I angry after that? No: for the simple reason that at least I messed it up for myself.
This might be a challenging train of thought for many people. But to be honest, I hate not being in control of my own destiny. For example, losing your job because someone else screwed up and ran the company in the ground is not fun, as you become the victim of someone else’s mistakes. Yes, I worked for Arthur Andersen and witnessed the downfall in 2002. It was painful seeing that your entire life plan suddenly crumbles to pieces because someone just couldn’t get enough.
A friend once asked me: “but, wouldn’t you be angrier about yourself if you take ownership of the mistake? Isn’t it easier to blame someone else?” To me it’s not for the simple reason: I can change my own behavior, I can learn new things and stay in control of myself. Can I change other people? Nope. Can I prevent them from screwing up so it will not effect me anymore? Nope. So why does everyone constantly want to blame others for the things they do? I have no idea.
Simple example: Woman pours hot coffee over her at a fast-food restaurant. She sues, makes a ton of money. While this is all good and nice, has she learned from her mistake? I highly doubt it. I always picture her pouring hot coffee over herself on a daily basis, wondering why it still hurts day after day after day. She probably used up all her money on burn cream. And on top of that: she can’t sue for more because now the cup says: caution hot!
So while I believe I rather suffer from the consequences of my own mistakes than from those of other people’s screw-ups, I do value the learning experience the mistakes of other people offer. It is truly fantastic, as I will not have to make these mistakes on my own. Why invent the wheel new? Why make mistakes others did already? I can sit back, relax and enjoy and know that I will save a ton of money on burn cream, because I know that if I pour hot coffee on me I won’t get rich out of it. Somebody else already did.
I freely interpret Thomas Edison: If I find 10, 000 ways of how it doesn’t work I am a step closer to how it works… He said something like that. I believe is context was based on his own mistakes. I would like to extend it to the mistakes of everyone else. In the end it is clear: I don’t have to screw up myself to learn something. Why would I? That would make me an idiot.
And here we close this little deviation from the original question: What exactly is a cardboard nose? Some dictionaries do translate it with idiot. I would kindly like to disagree. To me an idiot is a pretty offensive term.
To me a cardboard nose is characterized be either of two traits:
- A cardboard nose does realize sooner or later that he/she is wrong, was wrong, screwed up, call it what you want. This trait makes the cardboard nose human and you can almost at times feel for this person.
OR
- The mistakes committed by the cardboard nose are so outrageous and yet so obvious to the outside world, that basically everyone sees the mistake while happening; or based on the facts of the screw-up everyone could have guessed the mistake was happening as there are so many reasons to why whatever this person did simply could not work out. In this case, the cardboard nose is likely to blame others for their actions, which increases cardboard nose status as there simply isn’t anyone to blame. (Picture this: you find yourself alone in your garage with a skunk and the skunk tries to tell you that you are the smelly one. Now you know the skunk is a cardboard nose)
This is my definition of a cardboard nose. If anyone has a different one: good for you. I respect that, but for the future of this blog it will be irrelevant. (Does this make me a cardboard nose? Potentially it could. We will see.)
Now while cardboard noses can be found in all lacks of life, this I want to focus on the cardboard noses found in business and in fraud. As a fraud investigator you come across all kinds of cardboard noses. Why? Because they eventually get caught. I guess one of the most famous cardboard noses of our time is Bernie Madoff. He is a fantastic example. The fact that he was even surprised of how long he was able to continue his Ponzi scheme makes him an even bigger cardboard nose.
As I am a person who can laugh about herself I have seen that I hold quite some potential of being a cardboard nose. And that’s perfectly fine. I find the company of people who do NOT take themselves too serious way more pleasant and stimulating than being surrounded with cardboard noses who truly believe they are a higher power’s gift to whatever they do. Loosen up, enjoy life, have fun and be passionate. That being said, I might sneak in the occasional experience of my own cardboardnosedom as well.
As a conclusion to this introduction to Cardboard Noses, I dare to say: everyone has been or will be a cardboard nose at one time in their life….
