“These people don’t wear shoes!”
– from a piece written by Tom Coughlin, still one of the most talented people with whom I’ve ever worked
In 1991, I began working with a bright, energetic, funny, compelling young man named Tom Coughlin. My time working with him was as much fun as I’ve ever had in my career, and we accomplished some exceptionally cool things together. Following is a piece Tom wrote more recently. Longer than a run-of-the-mill DD, it is, however, a reminder that perspective, alone, often makes a difference.
Take it away, Coughlin:
In the late 1930s, a small company on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu made and sold sandals for the Islanders. It was a small company but it made a good product and its business grew.
After Pearl Harbor, with World War II raging in the Pacific, this small company successfully transitioned from making sandals to making boots for the Marines in action in the south Pacific. The demand caused the company to grow fast in a short amount of time, but the owners always knew that the demand for combat boots would not last. The war would end one day and then what would they do?
When the war ended in August, 1945 the company put a plan into action. They decided to go back to making sandals and also added light-weight shoes from what they learned making boots. They knew that there was not enough population in Hawaii to sustain the company at the level to which it had grown, so they decided to adopt a sales strategy similar to the military’s “Island Hopping” campaign.
The company sent two salesmen out to a series of pacific islands. The mission was for each sales person to go ashore on an opposite side of each island and work their way through the villages drumming up interest in the sandals and shoes. They would meet in the middle and radio the results back to Hawaii.
A few days after the sales people left, the company sent a boat load of sandals and shoes to follow them and fulfill the orders they were sure to come up with.
The first sales person landed on the south shore of the first island and began making his way from village to village. To his dismay, he observed that the native islanders did not wear shoes. After just a couple of visits, he radioed back to headquarters and dejectedly said, “Turn the boat around. This is of no use. These people don’t wear shoes.”
Meanwhile, the second sales person had landed on the northern shore of the same island and began making his way from village to village. He, too, observed that the native islanders did not wear shoes. He stopped at village after village and saw the same, bare feet. He, too radioed back to headquarters, but exclaimed, “ Hurry! Send TWO BOATS! These people don’t wear shoes!!”
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