He’s a Legend Around Here


he's a legend business cartoon

I remember starting a new job and being given the tour by an employee. Not only did I get introduced to pretty much everyone, but my guide also gave me the skinny and her opinion on them all.

“He’s kind of a jerk, and don’t ask about his wife. She likes to drink and made a fool of herself at the last office party.” Then there was the one guy who, I swear, was a Robert Redford lookalike. “That’s Tom. He’s like a legend around here.”

Immediatley, I began to think about this Tom person as a barbarian, Robin Hood, a knight on horseback and finally – as a unicorn.

As it turned out, the guy really was great at his job and a genuinely nice guy. But everytime I saw him after that first day, I couldn’t help but imagine him with a horn sticking out of his forehead.

He’s a legend after all.

8 Comments ▼

Mark Anderson Mark Anderson's cartoons appear in publications including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. His business cartoons are available for licensing at his website, Andertoons.com.

8 Reactions
  1. Heheeeee, I like that cartoon…and the inspiration behind it! I happen to like unicorns too actually! Unicorn unicorns, not human ones 🙂

    Did you chuckle to yourself inside everytime you saw Tom? Maybe making him wonder why you always seemed to smile so much?

  2. Love the cartoon and the story behind it. That was funny! I love to see someone who can draw cartoons and write as well. The first time I drew a simple cartoon was a golf ball with sunglasses on using Autocad Desktop 2005.

    • Well at least you can draw, Diana! I can’t draw to save an ant’s life let alone mine! The best I can do is spirals, flowers, hearts and squares – all of the doodling kind. Aaaand very elementary. Oh, almost forgot about smileys and stick figures. I can draw those too. Yay! Walt Disney would be jealous, I tell you – jealous. 🙂

  3. Martin Lindeskog

    Mark: I am lost, how did you end up with a unicorn? 😉

    • Maybe it’s the other way round, Martin! Maybe the unicorn ended up with Mark :-). Ha ha! Could be the inspiration for another cartoon as to how that came about. What say you, Mark? 🙂

  4. we all have a “Tom” at our work place!

  5. These office stories often lead to stereotypes that you may interfere when you interact with certain people at your workplace. As for me, I always try to get to know the person as who he or she is. Sure, he or she may have a story but that’s just it – a story. So you should end it there and get to know the person yourself.

  6. Unicorn is really a legend. And if it’s true, it’s indeed difficult to find one. I think the point of the story is to be extraordinary. The unicorn thing just makes the story colorful and amazingly funny.