Deacon Jude Tam Tran

PROBABLY WEARING AN ENGINEER BADGE

“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” Proverbs 15:22
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.” Ecclesiastes 4:9

The meeting was called “Advanced Strategic Planning Summit 2030.”

Which, in corporate language, roughly translates to:

“Eight hours of PowerPoint slides, twelve gallons of coffee, and seventeen people trying to explain why last quarter’s disaster was actually a ‘growth opportunity.’”

The boardroom itself looked like a spaceship. Giant screens. Leather chairs so expensive they probably had their own retirement plans. Every executive walked in carrying a laptop, a laser pointer, and enough confidence to invade a small country.

At the head of the table sat the CEO, smiling the way only CEOs smile when they are about to ask everyone to “do more with less.”

One by one, the executives stood up to present their brilliant ideas.

The CFO went first.
“We can increase profitability by reducing operational expenditure by 18.7%.”

Translation:
“We’re going to fire half the people who actually know how to do the work.”

Everybody nodded seriously.

Then the VP of Operations stood up.
“We need leaner execution models with maximum efficiency.”

Translation:
“We removed three departments and now Karen from accounting is also doing cybersecurity.”

More nodding.

Then came the consultant. Ah yes, the consultant. The only person in the room charging $400 an hour to explain common sense using colorful pie charts.

He clicked his remote dramatically.
“Synergy,” he said.

The room erupted into applause like he had just discovered gravity.

After several hours of executive wisdom, buzzwords, and enough acronyms to summon a demon, the CEO looked around the room and noticed a junior engineer quietly sitting in the corner.

This poor guy looked terrified. His badge still worked. His soul still had hope. Clearly new.

The CEO smiled politely.
“Well, son, you’ve been awfully quiet. Do you have any ideas for improving the company?”

Every executive turned toward him with the expression of people watching a goat wander into a lion enclosure.

The young engineer slowly stood up.
“Yes, sir,” he said nervously. “I’d like to tell a story.”

Now, executives love stories. Especially if they involve “innovation,” “leadership,” or “disruptive transformation.” So, they leaned in.

The young engineer began.
“There was once a scientist conducting an experiment on a bug. He trained the bug to understand commands.”

A few executives blinked.

The engineer continued.
“The scientist would say, ‘Jump!’ and the bug would jump.”

The room nodded politely.
“Then the scientist cut off one leg.”

Several executives shifted uncomfortably.
“The scientist again said, ‘Jump!’ and the bug jumped.”

The engineer paused dramatically.
“Then the scientist cut off another leg. Again, he said, ‘Jump!’ and the bug still jumped.”

Now people were paying attention.
“He kept removing legs one by one. Four legs gone. Five legs gone. The bug struggled, but it still managed to jump.”

The CFO slowly stopped typing.
“Finally,” the engineer said, “the scientist removed all the bug’s legs.”

The room became quiet.
“The scientist then shouted, ‘Jump!’”

The engineer looked around the room.
“But the bug did not move.”

Silence.

The executives waited for the scientific conclusion.

The engineer continued with a completely serious face.
“So, the scientist wrote in his report:
‘After removing all legs, the bug became deaf.’”

For two full seconds, nobody reacted.

Then one manager snorted.

Another started laughing.

Soon the entire room exploded.

Even the CEO laughed so hard he almost spilled his coffee.

The consultant laughed too, although he clearly did not understand the joke and was waiting for someone important to stop first.

Finally, the laughter died down.

The CEO wiped his eyes.
“That’s hilarious,” he said. “But what’s the point?”

The junior engineer took a deep breath.
“The moral,” he said carefully, “is that sometimes management removes all the support systems, tools, manpower, budgets, training, and time from the people on the floor…”

He paused.
“…and when performance collapses, leadership concludes the workers are lazy, unmotivated, resistant, or incompetent, or became deaf.”

Dead silence.

The engineer continued.
“But maybe the problem isn’t that the people became deaf.”

He looked directly at the executives.
“Maybe they just have no legs left to jump with.”

You could hear the air conditioner breathing.

Suddenly nobody was looking at their phones anymore.

Because deep down, everybody knew he was right.

The warehouse manager remembered losing half his staff while workload doubled.

The IT director remembered being told to “maintain world-class cybersecurity” with a budget smaller than the office snack fund.

The production supervisor remembered being blamed for delays after maintenance crews were eliminated to “save costs.”

And the employees? They were expected to smile through all of it like motivational posters taped to a sinking ship.

The engineer sat down quietly.

No dramatic music. No applause.

Just uncomfortable truth.

You see, this story is funny because it is absurd.

But it is also painfully real.

In modern life, people are often judged without understanding what has been removed from them.

Parents are exhausted but expected to parent perfectly.
Workers are burned out but expected to perform like machines.
Small businesses are crushed by giant corporations and still told to “just work harder.”
Sometimes society cuts away people’s support, hope, rest, encouragement, or opportunity… then criticizes them for struggling to jump.

That is why wisdom matters more than arrogance.

The Bible says in Proverbs 15:22:
“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”

A company — or a family, or a nation — cannot succeed when leaders only listen to people at the top while ignoring the people actually carrying the weight at the bottom.

And another powerful verse from Ecclesiastes 4:9 says:
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.”

In other words: people perform best when they are supported, not stripped bare.

The greatest leaders are not the ones who demand impossible jumps.

They are the ones who build strong legs beneath their people.

Real leadership is not standing safely in the boardroom shouting “Jump!”

Real leadership is asking:
“What do you need in order to succeed?”

Because when people are given trust, tools, support, opportunity, and respect, amazing things happen.

Workers become innovators.
Teams become families.
Small companies become giants.
And ordinary people accomplish extraordinary things.

The irony is this:

Many organizations spend millions hiring consultants to explain why performance is falling…
…when the answer has been sitting quietly in the corner the whole time.

Probably wearing an engineer badge.