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Drinking the Kool-Aid

I've now heard this phrase 3 times in the last couple of weeks ... "Drinking the Kool-Aid".

It's been used in reference to Keller Williams and being the Real Estate One agent that I am, I'm clueless as to what this means. It appears to be a Keller Williams thing ...

Come On Keller Williams folks, give me the 411 on the "Drinking the Kool-Aid"!!!!! :-)

Posted by Lisa Bender - Livingston County Realtor (Brighton, Howell, Hartland) on 11/04/2007 08:56 PM

Comments (18)

keller williams, koolaid

18 Comments on Drinking the Kool-Aid

NOV

2007

Lisa:

I've heard this outside of the Keller Williams group. I think it means that one is not going to continue to believe the "B.S.".

I don't know where this cliche' originated from, Jonestown?

I'm not with KW, either. There isn't even a branch around me. BUT, I think I know what they are talking about....

Jim Jones - drinking the Kool-Aid. A very unpleasant story.

It's a reference to belonging to a cult.

I suggest googling Jim Jones to read the whole horrible story.

Drinking the Kool Aid originally comes from the Jim Jones massacre down in Guyana. The members of the cult drank the poisoned kool aid. It means you are a true believer, and in the Keller Williams reference that you are committed to their system.

Lisa,

I taught it has to do with the mass suicide of people who drink the kool-aid.

HHHHHmmmm, Lisa

When I hear someone say "Drinking the Kool Aid"...I think of Jim Jones and his followers in Gyana.

OMG ... I had no idea!!!

Jim Jones is the first thing that comes to my mind as well. I am not sure hows this ties into real estate unless someone is commiting professional suicide

I heard someone say it in a real estate class and then again at my sales meeting in reference to what must be the Keller Williams way of selling real estate, etc.

No suicides ...

to drink the Kool-Aid - v., 1. To believe or to emphatically voice belief in a company strategy, product, or slogan. 2. To have or to claim to have a high degree of loyalty and trust in a company executive, often when others have voiced the opposite view.

In today's politically correct workplace, many employees are careful to avoid talking to co-workers about controversial subjects and social taboos such as religious cults or mass murder. Today's piece of corporate jargon is a rare exception to this norm.

The source of the expression "to drink the Kook-Aid" is the hideously tragic Jonestown Massacre -& children by poisoning them with cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. (Actually, it wasn't Kool- when religious cult leader Jim Jones killed himself and over 900 men, women Aid, it was "Flavor-aide" a powdered sugary drink mix very similar to Kool-Aid).

Although the cult members were certainly under duress to drink the poison, the murderous event is sometimes portrayed as mass suicide. It's this image of blind, suicidal loyalty to cult leader Jim Jones that inspires the use of the phrase today to refer to corporate loyalty and enthusiasm.

It's perhaps not surprising to hear the term used derisively, to imply that a person's loyalty is clouding sound judgment, for example:

SPEAKER: "I sincerely believe that the CEO's new idea to shut down all corporate operations, sell all of our corporate real estate, and use the money to purchase three magic beans is a fabulous idea that just can't fail!"
AUDIENCE MEMBER (to a co-worker): "Wow, the speaker has really been drinking the Kool-Aid, don't you think?"

oh...like "take the gas pipe"

NOV

2007

Hi Lisa - "Drinking the Kool-Aid" is most definitely NOT a part of Keller Williams in any way shape or form. It may have been used in a derogatory way by an agent from another company who didn't fully understand the KW business model, but has never been a part of our corporate culture. Our stated values are "God, Family, then Business."

It was used by a loan officer that's part of KW ... is it Premiere?

Anyone that's used it didn't mean it in a derogatory way at all. It was just used as an expression and I didn't really realize where the phrase came from. In light of it's origins, I still don't feel anyone used it inappropriately about KW. KW has a different way they do real estate was what I got from it.

Have an AWESOME Monday everyone! Thanks for all your posts! :-)

Excellent explanation by Paige Roausch!! I also think of "drinking the Kool-Aid" as a derisive term, implying people following a cult-type ideology, which is the impression some have of Keller Williams.

DEC

2007

Lisa,

I am just now responding to this. Drinking the Kool aid is not to be taken in a derogatory way. It means to do business the kw way and it will be rewarding to you. Whoever tried to tell you we are cult like is wrong.

Love ya Lisa!

Oh I know ... when I posted this I truly had no idea where the term came from. I didn't think it was derogatory one bit, just curious as to what it meant. Thanks for clarifying! I need to get in touch with you! I'll give you a ring after the holidays.

Merry Christmas Lori!!!!! :-)

FEB

2008

I am an agent with KW and also (very briefly) was an assistant to a Office Manager (Or as KW calls them...Team Leaders).

The idiomatic expression, "drinking the Kool-Aid", was originally a reference to the Merry Pranksters, a group of people associated with novelist Ken Kesey who, in the early 1960s, traveled around the United States and held events called "Acid Tests", where LSD-laced Kool-Aid was passed out to the public (LSD was legal in the U.S. until 1966). Those who drank the "Kool-Aid" passed the "Acid Test". "Drinking the Kool-Aid" in that context meant accepting the LSD drug culture, and the Pranksters' "turned on" point of view. These events were described in Tom Wolfe's 1968 classic, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.^[4]

Having "drunk the Kool-Aid" now commonly refers to being a strong or fervent believer in a particular philosophy or mission -- wholeheartedly or blindly believing in its virtues...Like the KW Real Estate Model. The Kool-Aid reference is a play on words and/or metaphor pertaining to Keller Williams being a cult like organization...Which in my experience...IT IS! Everywhere they go...KW Co-Founder Gary Keller is always wearing the same ALL BLACK suit and his little buddy Dave Jenks is always wearing his trademark brown jacket.

Keller Williams leadership & agents know that people (both inside & outside the company) associate it with a cult. Their response is "We are not a cult...We are a culTURE"....Whatever!

The company's recruiting slogan is "To build careers worth having, Businesses worth owning, And lives worth living"...COME ON....PLEASE..."Lives worth living"? I finally had a fierce conversation with my Team Leader & Operating Principle on this little slogan. And I was like...who are we attracting here with a slogan that ends in "Lives worth Living".

It seems to me to be a very carfully developed slogan to attract the simple minded people on the verge of suicide... And KW is the cure for their ailments via it's Culture of Friendly & Helpful Associates who love & care for you... Profitshare pool that will provide for your family long past your death.

No don't get me wrong...I love the company for other reasons as well...like their education, marketing & technology solutions the provide...But overall it's a "mixed bag" for sure. I would drink the Kool-Aid...BUT ONLY WITH HALF THE SUGAR! (If you know what I mean)

I would also like to hear from others who are with KW and their viewpoints...

SOUND OFF PLEASE!

we just opened our office here in state college pa.. and i here all of these logo signs,,. and phrases.. i have alot to learn here,, i thought real estate was tuff!!!!!!!!! haha..

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