Potential

AHHHHH!

A few days ago I wrote "'You have potential'... What an ominous thing to say".

I wasn't trying to be different when I posted that, I actually posted it on my personal Facebook page too, just to see what reactions my friends would give.

I was disappointed when not many comments popped up, but a few liked it, so I think they at least got the gist of the post. There was one comment however that caught my eye, a link to the recent GEICO commercial where Pinocchio tells a room full of people that they have potential, singling out a balding middle aged man near the front row, pointing at him, and saying "You have potential". Upon saying this to the man Pinocchio's nose grew, he got nervous, and the commercial ended.

I really hope that Pinocchio character was animated, because the live action version of that thing would be terrifying.

I laughed when I saw the commercial, it's very clever, but they missed something important. When Pinocchio pointed at that man and said "You have potential!", his nose should not have grown because he wasn't lying. That man does in fact have potential, tons of potential. What the commercial implied, and in typical motivational speaker talk, is that potential is always a good thing. We've become accustomed to viewing potential as something to strive towards, to "reach our full potential"!

Potential - adjective: 

1.possible, as opposed to actual:
the potential uses of nuclear energy. 

2.capable of being or becoming:
a potential danger to safety. 

3.Grammar. expressing possibility:

You see? It's right there in the dictionary.com definition of potential. Potential uses of nuclear energy, Potential danger to safety, Expressing possibility.

Potential can be a very bad thing. In fact, there are people in this world who I hope never reach their full potential, because of the express possibility that they are capable of doing terrible things. We, in our human nature have the potential to do great, amazing things, which are exactly what most folks mean when they say, hand on shoulder, You Have Potential. But humans also carry the capacity, the potential, and the ability to become ultimately evil, destructive, to do terrible things.

Potential is a gun.

A gun has the potential to stop a violent crime from happening if it's in the hands of someone who desires to stop that violent crime, but if that same gun is in the hands of the perpetrator of the violent crime, the gun becomes the catalyst for that person to reach their most violent potential.

So please, heed this post. Start qualifying your speech. Instead of saying "You have so much potential", which is honestly like saying "You have so much oxygen", start telling people about their potential for good, be specific.

As for you, GEICO, I'm sorry, but you have to re-think your commercial now.