Building On Values

[Sherrie Hatfield]

"I don't subscribe to the thesis, 'Let the buyer beware,'" said the
late writer Isaac Asimov. "I prefer the disregarded one that goes,
'Let the seller be honest.'"

Look at the financial problems of today's world. How many of these
problems were the result of inferior products (dubious mortgages, in
this case) sold to unaware buyers?

I am convinced that long-range successful businesses, and truly
successful lives, are built on values. Two of those values are honesty
and integrity.

Over a century ago, clothier John Wanamaker, whose retail business
grew into one of the world's first department stores, would have
agreed. Wanamaker is sometimes called the father of modern
advertising. He instilled the attitude of utmost honesty in his
employees.

The story is told of one of his advertising people who was instructed
to make a sign promoting neckties that were reduced in price from one
dollar apiece to 25 cents. After personally examining the ties, the
marketer asked, "Are they any good?"

"No, they're not," he was told.

Wanamaker would have been completely honest, so the ad copy had to
reflect the attitude of the store. The necktie advertisement was
finally written this way: "They are not as good as they look, but they
are good enough at 25 cents." The department sold out of ties almost
immediately and was forced to purchase several more weeks' supply of
cheap ties to fill the persistent demand (Selling Solutions, Juanita
Ruiz, Ed., Oct. 1995).

Wanamaker believed that only a business based on values has real
value. And businesses of value are always successful.

Can't it also be said that a life built on values has real value? And
when you and I build our lives on honesty and integrity, we will
likewise know success.

-- Steve Goodier