‘The Difference Is’

THANK YOU FOR COMING to my brief TED talk-ing poem on getting things done. (Or not getting them done.) Please tip your waitresses.


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THE DIFFERENCE IS

by Douglas John Imbrogno

There is a difference
between people who do things
and people who don’t.

The difference is
people who do things,
do them.

People who
don’t,
don’t.


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3 comments

I just noticed the simplicity of it, and how it reminds me of “the rich have money (typo in my comment of “gave”) — some things that seem complex often have a very simple side to them! Or, to confuse you with another quote, Master Yoda said, “Do or Do Not. There is no Try.” 🙂

Love your posts!

Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote: Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. OR, as my fathers says, “The rich are different, they gave money.”

Douglas Imbrogno says:

It’s an interesting thing, your response to that video/poem. The initial impetus to “The Difference Is” was frustration with a friend who is an untutored , but natural, excellent writer. For years and years, he has talked about wanting to write regularly. What I had seen of his writing on an old Typepad memoir-style diary recollection of his life was just excellent. He even at one point earned a book contract from a small press. And never delivered the book, at least, last I heard. So, “The Difference Is” was initially inspired by that — a shout-out to those who talk about writing and complain about not being able to write. And then don’t sit butt down in seat and write. (But it is also a nudge to myself, who ‘himself,’ as the Irish say, has unfinished books on several burners). So, I was confused when I first saw your comment, Elizabeth. And then, pleased. My Miami U. writing prof, Milton White, used to say that to understand the implications of any piece of writing is a mathematical equation: ‘TEXT X READER = REACTION.’ Words have overtones and connotations, as well as denotations. So, your insight that the words of “The Difference Is” also speaks to those who make compared to those who only take, living off borrowed, inherited wealth or possessing power and riches only for the sake of furthering their own interests, is a neat reverberation from the assertion “The Difference Is” makes. Thanks.

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