I am visiting Colorado this week and spending time with my Grandmother. She is 97. I decided to spend this week reflecting on all the great things that I have learned from my grandparents througout my life. Thinking this through, my memory brings me back to the first phrase I remember my Father and Grandfather repeating frequently, “make no waves, back no losers.” For the longest time I always pondered this phrase, the meaning and intent. Never quite sure.
Years later I read a book about the conquest of Chicago politics by Richard Daley. It was Daley’s campaign team that authored this slogan and that is why it was popular in 1976, right around the time I was hearing people use the phrase. Daley got a lot of press when he died that year, so that must be why this phrase become popular. Sort of ironic, really. Daley was certainly not a person to “not make waves.” Shortly after being elected Mayor, bull dozing entire neighborhoods down was probably a bit of a wave! I am not sure I have been successful at this either, as I seem to have a rebellious streak that is never quiet.
However, the advice has stuck with me. It is certainly good advice to execute your plan as quietly as possible. The more waves you make, the more your presence will be detected by the enemy. I think that is what Daley’s team probably really meant. Waves also tend to come back in equal or greater measure. So if you are deliberately making waves, you had better be prepared for the returning wake. When trying to get ahead in life, it is never a good idea to be out making trouble for trouble sake. Better would be to be deliberate and purposeful, making a splash only when absolutely necessary.
Backing losers is interesting. Daley’s team certainly got this right. Stay away from causes, personalities, and people that would not be popular. This was probably the first time in modern American politics that populism was taken mainstream. Not since the days of Davy Crocket had a political machine been built from the ground up by focusing on what was the most popular. This is just normal in today’s politics, but then it was something of an enigma. This is good advice, as backing losers will never get you very far in life, in employement or any endeavor.
In a week focusing on things my grandparents have taught me, this had to be the first one. Although, I think it was my father who repeated this phrase the most, I had to start the week with the first phrase that I remember.
