Little Johnny the Entrepreneur
The kids filed back into class Monday morning. They were very
excited. Their weekend assignment was to sell something, then give a talk on
productive salesmanship.
Little Sally led off: "I sold girl
scout cookies and I made $30," she said proudly, "My sales approach was to
appeal to the customer's civil spirit and I credit that approach for my
obvious success."
"Very good," said the teacher.
Little
Jenny was next:
"I sold magazines," she said, "I made $45 and I
explained to everyone that magazines would keep them up on current
events."
"Very good, Jenny," said the teacher.
Eventually,
it was Little Johnny's turn. The teacher held her
breath...
Little Johnny walked to the front of the classroom
and dumped a box full of cash on the teacher's desk. "$2,467" he
said."$2,467!" cried the teacher, "What in the world were you
selling?"
"Toothbrushes," said Little Johnny.
"Toothbrushes!" echoed
the teacher, "How could you possibly sell enough tooth brushes to make that
much money?"
"I found the busiest corner in town," said Little Johnny, "I
set up a Chip & Dip stand and gave everybody who walked by a free
sample. They all said the same thing, "Hey, this tastes like dog shit!" Then
I would say, "It is dog shit. Wanna buy a toothbrush?
I used the
government approach of giving you something shitty for free, and then making
you pay to get the taste out of your mouth."