How we love our brainchild's! Sometimes, when our methods fail, we go on a spree of reason-finding. But we cleverly weed out any suggestion that would coax us to abandon our ideas! I particularly loved this story i came across a few days ago.
This is the story of Hyman Leobowitz, a man who came from across the Iron curtain to make a living in the land of opportunity, by carrying on his family trade, making nails. He struggles for decades, finally carving his own niche in the industry -all the while growing old and weak- till his wife suggests that maybe, it was time to hand over his business to his son.
Reluctantly, the man puts his son in charge, arranges for weekly reports to be sent to him, and retires somewhere down south.
Barely a few months into his retirement, filled with weeks of negative reports, he decides he has to go back to see where his son was wrong. So he boards a flight to New Jersey. On the way to his sons factory, he notices this huge billboard with the picture of Jesus crucified, and a thundering legend - "They used Leobowitz nails"!
He storms into his sons office and shouts "Do you know what you are doing? I built this business over fifty years with sweat". But his son assures him that he would take care of this. So he retires back to Florida.
Still the weekly reports are depressing as ever. Finally he decides he has to make the trip once again. Just as he gets off his plane, he sees another signboard. This time, there was an empty cross, and low and behold, Jesus is crumbled beneath, and the caption "They didn't use Leobowitz nails"!
This is the story of Hyman Leobowitz, a man who came from across the Iron curtain to make a living in the land of opportunity, by carrying on his family trade, making nails. He struggles for decades, finally carving his own niche in the industry -all the while growing old and weak- till his wife suggests that maybe, it was time to hand over his business to his son.
Reluctantly, the man puts his son in charge, arranges for weekly reports to be sent to him, and retires somewhere down south.
Barely a few months into his retirement, filled with weeks of negative reports, he decides he has to go back to see where his son was wrong. So he boards a flight to New Jersey. On the way to his sons factory, he notices this huge billboard with the picture of Jesus crucified, and a thundering legend - "They used Leobowitz nails"!
He storms into his sons office and shouts "Do you know what you are doing? I built this business over fifty years with sweat". But his son assures him that he would take care of this. So he retires back to Florida.
Still the weekly reports are depressing as ever. Finally he decides he has to make the trip once again. Just as he gets off his plane, he sees another signboard. This time, there was an empty cross, and low and behold, Jesus is crumbled beneath, and the caption "They didn't use Leobowitz nails"!
3 comments:
WOW...lol, what a story, although I can't say what I make of it right now...LOL. thanks for visiting me.
Where did you read that? Are you a marketing/sales guy by any chance? 'Cause this is a great marketing story! And actually, more about marketing follies than our inability to break the umblical cord, I think.
# justmewriting
yr always welcome.... and it was a good read anyway!
#me
nope.. am a fund manager. and for me, it was about breaking th cord. like, i used to follow a strategy that was mine own, and good. but had its loopholes.
and i used to defend myself when it went wrong, without blaming the strategy, and thereby never changing....
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