To Have and Eat Cake.

Today's Marketing Cookie presents a conundrum.

I find it somewhat amusing when fortune cookies contain little typos because these errors can alter the meaning and lead to unexpected directions. If the fortune were to say, "Eat it too," it would simply imply eating the cake as well, but "Eat it to" suggests consuming the cake in recognition or honor of something. Let's ponder this: If you were to stand up and make a toast with your cake, what would you eat it in honor of? To the future? To long life? Or perhaps you'd declare, "Let's eat our cake to also having it!" Everyone in the parlor would smile, and I would say, "Bravo, I'll eat cake to that!"

What does it truly mean to have your cake and eat it too? It appears quite impossible to consume your cake and still have it afterward because once it's in your stomach, it ceases to exist as cake. However, if you consider the scenario where someone offers you cake, saying, "Would you like to have some cake?" there's only one appropriate response to such an irresistible offer: "Yes, I would like to have cake"... and then you EAT it. Perhaps in this way, you get to HAVE cake and EAT it too, and that, my friends, may be the best of both worlds.

So then, you may ask, "What's your point?"

Alright, here's my point. Sometimes in your career, you CAN have the best of both worlds. It's all about perspective. I wanted to be a screenplay writer and an actor but became a marketer instead. No cake, you say? Well, I get to help my clients tell meaningful stories and present marketing strategies to audiences at conferences across the country. Although I'm not working in the motion picture industry as I had planned, I've adapted my dream to fit my profession. Just like me, you can simply change the recipe so you get to have your cake and eat it too.

Let's eat cake to that!