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Conversations in Management

High Hopes

Oops… there goes another rubber tree plant.

Jimmy Van Heusen wrote the music, Sammy Cahn wrote the lyrics and Frank Sinatra immortalized it. As it was, High Hopes turned out to be the only memorable thing about Frank Capra’s 1959 movie A Hole in the Head. Everyone connected with project had high hopes that the film would replicate the charm, warmth and sentiment of Capra’s classic, It’s A Wonderful Life. Alas, it was not to be. Instead the director and an able cast that included not only Frank Sinatra but Edward G. Robinson, Thelma Ritter, Eleanor Parker, Eddie Hodges, Carolyn Jones and Keenan Wynn produced a light comedy that never quite succeeded. In the movie, Tony Manetta (played by Sinatra) is a widower with an eleven year old son who’s desperately trying to raise enough money to save his failing hotel. Tony is a dreamer, a wheeler dealer and, “like good old Adam,” has a weakness for “Eves.” Unfortunately, his rolling stone lifestyle might cost him not only his hotel, but custody of his son as well. Yet Tony isn’t just a guy trying to get out of debt and hold his family together—he has high hopes. He wants to get out in front of his troubles and do something, “big.” That something is to build a $5,000,000 amusement park. Of course the story works out in the end and High Hopes happily captures the spirit of rich optimism that the film as a whole was unable to deliver. In fact, the song was so successful in this regard, that Sinatra recorded an adaptation of it for the Kennedy campaign a year later. That version produced rousing lines like, “Everyone is voting for Jack; Cause he's got what all the rest lack,” and “Oops, there goes the opposition—-Kerplop!” Following the election, the Kennedy administration wisely dropped its association with A Hole in the Head in favor of the more promising Camelot. At about the same time Sinatra recorded High Hopes with a children’s chorus—the version most often heard today.

Hope is about desire and about the expectation that the desire can be fulfilled. It includes elements of trust, reliance and certainty. It’s surprising then, how often we temper our hopes with doubt when describing them. When we say, “hopefully everything will work out,” or, that we’re “hopeful,” we’re actually equivocating. We’re adding an element of uncertainty to our hopes. We’re suggesting to ourselves and others that our dreams and desires are just as likely not to be fulfilled. Let’s face it, “hoping for the best,” is less about hope than about playing the odds in the great game of life. In reality, this is despair masquerading as hope and it won’t ever satisfy our aspirations.

High Hopes never explains why the ant wants to move the rubber tree plant or for that matter, why the ram wants to punch a hole in the dam. It doesn’t try to make the case that these are worthy goals; it simply tells us that these are big goals. It also points out that our dreams slip away when we’re, “getting’ low” or “feelin’ sad.” In other words, when we let discouragement vet our ambitions.

Granted, some folks will look at your high hopes and think that you’ve got a hole in your head. Some will actually tell you so and others may work overtime trying to discourage you; but don’t let them. Keep on hoping high hopes and expecting to succeed. In good time, good things will happen and you’ll also see that, “Oops there goes another problem kerplop! Kerplop!”

—Ebert