"If you're a car salesman, and someone says 'This is a terrible car, I'm not buying it,' it doesn't mean they hate you. They just don't like your product. I think that's a mistake a lot of people in show business make.. they're so tied to their act they take everything personally."
-Jay Leno
"I think it's very important that whatever you're trying to make or sell, or teach has to be basically good. A bad product and you know what? You won't be here in ten years."
-Martha Stewart
I was at home one day and heard a knock at the door. It was a young man in his 20s trying to sell me magazines. He started telling me his story about how he was a single parent that had recently relocated to the area. He was personable and made me laugh, he made me empathize with his situation, but there was one thing he didn't do - Offer me a product that I wanted to buy.
I told him "no" and he responded with something that stuck in my mind.
"It's not about books, bibles, or magazines. It's about giving someone like me a chance, " he said.
I still didn't buy. I felt like crap the whole day. I felt bad that someone was out there working so hard and it must be a very hard way of life. I felt cold-hearted.
The more I thought about it I wished I had given him some advice. I wanted to tell him that unfortunately the world is about books, bibles, and magazines. I wanted to tell him that the sooner he changed careers and started selling something the free-market wanted the sooner he could be successful in life.
You cannot fight the free-market. It will crush you if you try. Success means that you must offer something of value that people want. The better the value you are offering, the easier the sale.
That young man will not be selling door-to-door forever. It may take time but eventually the free-market will drive him into another career. Hopefully he can then go into a career that he can more easily reap the fruits of his labor by selling a product that the market wants.
