“When the duck asks for grapes…” 🦆🍇
Last night, my Gen-Alpha kid showed me a quirky animated video from 2009 called The Duck Song (660+ million views) by Bryant Oden.
Here is the plot:
A duck walks up to a lemonade stand, looks the owner in the eye, and asks for grapes.
Every. Single. Day. The answer? Always “No.”
But the duck keeps coming back.
Here’s the link: https://lnkd.in/eTaTbMb2
It’s absurd. It’s repetitive. It’s hilarious.
And if you lead, run a business, or work with people, you would appreciate the brilliance.
Here are five things that the persistent little duck reminded me:
1. Persistence works until it doesn’t.
Consistency keeps you top-of-mind. Sometimes admirable, sometimes noise. The real skill? Knowing when to stay the course and when to pivot.
2. Requests are rarely about the request.
The duck didn’t want lemonade. It wanted something else entirely. Asking why is far more potent than answering what.
3. Not every “no” is final.
Timing matters, but readiness matters too. The landscape can shift.
4. Adaptation beats resistance.
By the end, the lemonade seller changes his approach not out of defeat but out of creativity.
5. Humour disarms tension.
Sometimes the best way to shift a dynamic is levity, not pressure.
In high-stakes environments, boardrooms, and negotiations, we can be so focused on the pitch, the plan, or the nod that we forget the value of showing up, reframing, and keeping it human.
There you go! Wisdom can come from a cartoon duck because leadership lessons don’t discriminate.