Active Rain July 18, 2011

It’s Not The Size of the Dog in the Fight. It’s the Size of the Fight in the Dog.

If you haven’t met Paco, you’ll be hearing about him on the news. Paco is the little rescued Chihuahua who chased armed robbers out of his master’s store. He didn’t care that they had a shotgun or dwarfed him, he still barked his head off and chased them out of the store like they were dinner if he caught up. 

Paco didn’t rest on his laurels or tell the robbers what he did in 2006. Paco didn’t tell his master to let the lawyers work it out. Paco was indifferent to the odds. He took matters into his own paws charge. 

My old head rowing coach in college, Tully Vaughan, always said this: “Crew doesn’t build character. It reveals character.”  Character is just something you have. You don’t learn to pull Excalibur out of the stone, you can or you can’t. You don’t work up to holding the hammer of Thor at the gym. You either belong in Asgaard or you don’t. Here’s what you don’t know about someone until you do know- whether they have the heart of a wolf or a chihuahua. Paco has the heart of a wolf. 

If I seem overdramatic about some dog barking at strangers and probably not knowing what a gun even is, perhaps I am. But I have a soft spot in my heart for the diminutive and the underdog. Being a shorter dude myself and often underestimated, I eat this stuff up. I have been a giant killer since the days I opened my firm for business. 

Dogs don’t understand fanfare. They understand belly rubs. If Paco could speak, he’d just say he was doing his job. 

To me, the take away is to do your job with Paco’s faith and you’ll kill giants. To consumers, there is also a lesson- biggest isn’t best. The agent who’ll do the best job for you may not work for the swanky label, they work for the result. My boss is a collective of 4 with a combined age of 26. There isn’t much I wouldn’t do for them. 

Go out today and make magic. 

Some bonus inspiration:

Raw surveilance footage of the event on the owner’s Youtube account
Heather Dorniden’s amazing comeback. (hat tip to BLiz Spear)
People are awesome.