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Magic Black Pearls

Guest post by: Jim Stovall

Article Overview: If a picture is worth a thousand words, a good story may be worth a million. Recently, I read about a young man from a fabulously wealthy family. He was traveling on his yacht which was temporarily docked at a luxurious resort on a tropical island. Next to the young man's yacht was an even larger yacht, owned by a successful, retired entrepreneur who had just sold his business interest and was enjoying his retirement years.

Magic Black Pearls

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a good story may be worth a million. Recently, I read about a young man from a fabulously wealthy family. He was traveling on his yacht which was temporarily docked at a luxurious resort on a tropical island. Next to the young man's yacht was an even larger yacht, owned by a successful, retired entrepreneur who had just sold his business interest and was enjoying his retirement years.

The two men met and began talking about yachts, the weather, and any number of things that newly-acquainted people might talk about. Then, the young man turned to the entrepreneur and told him about a frustrating business failure he was experiencing. Apparently, among his vast inherited holdings, the young man owned a small island near the equator. In the lagoon of this island, he discovered a vast quantity of black pearls. He spent a lot of money having these pearls collected, processed into jewelry, and shipped to markets all around the world. Unfortunately, no one seemed to be interested in his black pearls.

The old entrepreneur thought for a minute and then told the young man he would solve the problem for one-half of the black pearl business. The wealthy young man was initially indignant but finally realized that half of something is better than all of nothing, so he agreed.

The old entrepreneur then instructed the young man to have all the black pearl jewelry shipped back to a central location where they would be stored for two years. At the end of the two years, the old entrepreneur shipped one strand of the black pearls to the most elite jeweler in the world, and his longtime friend Harry Winston. Winston agreed to display the black pearls surrounded with outrageously-priced diamonds, rubies, and emeralds in his New York City store window. The old entrepreneur then took out strategically-placed display ads in magazines showing the window of Harry Winston's store.

Finally, the old entrepreneur's last tactic was to send a handful of the strands of black pearls to individually-selected movie stars, socialites, and high-profile women around the world. In all the ads and news stories about the black pearls, the old entrepreneur described them as rare, unusual, and extremely scarce. In the coming years, those black pearls became a permanent fixture in the high-end jewelry market.

The old entrepreneur understood what the young rich man had not learned: If you need to water your flower garden, a light sprinkle will cause your garden to grow and flourish while a flood will kill it.

As you go through your day today, look for ways to properly position your products, services, and ideas. You may have the right thing at the right time, and you simply need to change the world's perspective.

Today's the day!

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Article Tags: black pearls weath entrepreneur retirement jim stovall



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