Is It About The Nail?

You’ve probably seen the very funny video, “It’s not about the nail.” If not, you need to Google it.  It starts with a woman (the camera shot is a close-up of her face) complaining about headache pain and discomfort. This goes on for about 20 seconds, then the scene pans out to show her sitting with her boyfriend/husband on the couch, going to a profile view of each. Clearly, you see a nail jutting out from her forehead, while she continues to struggle with the pain she’s experiencing, not sure why it’s happening. The boyfriend/husband has a look of “Are you kidding me?” on his face as he quickly identifies the problem – the nail! She gets upset, saying he never listens, etc…goes back and forth for a while, until he finally relents and says, “*Sigh…that must really hurt”. And she, of course, melts and says thank you while reaching for his hand. Success! Then they go to kiss, bumping the nail, and all hell breaks loose again and the scene ends. Hilarious! But there’s some real learning here.  

Question? What is the video about? Of course it’s about the nail because we’d naturally assume the problem she is complaining about is her pain.

But is it?

Perhaps the problem she wants to be solved is not the pain (hard for me to write that – because that HAS to be the problem). But I digress… The problem she wants to be solved is…wait for it…

UNDERSTANDING!

Simple as that.

Yes, we’ll get to the nail eventually. Maybe. But the problem is not what we think (mostly guys, but not all).  We won’t get to the nail (OUR solution) until we get to empathy. That only happens with understanding and appreciation.

Maybe the original title really is correct.

It’s Not About The Nail.