Aaron and Paul were best friends, and often spent
hours coming up with creative ideas together.
When Paul was in college, he was so broke that he couldn't even afford
to do his laundry. Then he hatched an idea.
He contacted a big laundry company with a proposal. He guaranteed that he’d bring them laundry
from hundreds of college students if the company would give him a good price to
pick it up and deliver it back to Paul cleaned, folded, and in individual bags. They agreed on a price, and Paul spread the
word by offering free beer to any student who used his laundry service. Not only did Paul get his laundry done for
free, he also made the equivalent of $500 a week.
Aaron had a difficult childhood. His family was so poor that they were always late
paying their rent, and eviction was just a letter away. When he was twelve, Aaron’s mother became ill
and entered the hospital for care. His
father was a traveling salesman and went on the road, leaving Aaron to care for
himself. One evening, he was so hungry
that he cut photos of food out of a magazine, laid them on a plate, and
pretended it was real food. He cut up
the paper photos with a knife and fork and savored every bite.
One Christmas, Paul asked Aaron to help him
make some holiday gifts for his family and friends. Paul loved to cook, and worked up a blend of olive
oil, red wine vinegar, mustard, and other ingredients. Aaron stirred the dressing mixture and poured
it into bottles to give away as gifts.
When they finished, there was enough left that Paul suggested they start
a business to sell it. Aaron said, "There
are a lot of rules to running a business.
Fortunately, we don't know any of them." Paul laughed and suggested the next step was
to visit a company to seek some advice.
They found a company who tried the dressing,
agreed it was good, and said that they would love to get involved. They would conduct market research on the
product as well as help launch the business, in return for a fee of $400,000.
Paul and Aaron said, "No thanks.” Instead, they invited twenty friends to a
blind tasting of their product against nineteen popular dressing brands, which
they spent $40 to purchase. Nineteen of
their friends picked their recipe as the best, and those results were good
enough for Aaron and Paul. They had
saved $399,960 doing the research themselves.
Aaron and Paul knew they had a great product,
but the decision to donate all their profits to charity really launched their
potential into the stratosphere. As
difficult as it is to launch a new salad dressing against established brands like
Kraft and Best Foods, they were inspired to beat the odds. Today, more than three decades later, Newman's Own Dressing has donated more
than $300 million to charity. Paul
Newman was best known as an Academy Award winning actor, and his friend Aaron
“A.E.” Hotchner was Earnest Hemmingway's biographer, but their generosity left
its own mark as well.
Their story reminds me of Crenshaw High School
in South Central Los Angeles, where I once taught a business seminar. Years earlier, the L.A. Riots had devastated
the area, and the students were looking to infuse some hope back in their
community. They cleared out a vacant lot
behind the football field, getting rid of the trash and “recycling” the area as
a garden to grow fruits and vegetables.
Soon after, a local business person visited and offered to help them
create a salad dressing out of what they grew in the garden. They named their company Food from the 'Hood and donated a quarter of their harvest to local
shelters, turning the rest into dressing that they sold in local supermarkets. Half the profits were reinvested into the
business, while the other half went to a college scholarship fund for Crenshaw
students. Over the last twenty years,
more than $250,000 has been earned toward student scholarships... an amazing
accomplishment!
Heading into 2015, remember to tend to your
own garden. Too many people let their
dreams die on the vine. What dreams and
positive visions of the future are inside you? This year, let's recycle
hope. They say that hope isn’t a
strategy, but I believe it’s where the recipe begins. Renew your hope. Plant your dreams. Imagine a garden full of possibilities, then
fertilize with the most important nutrient:
Action!
Here's wishing you a happy, hopeful new year!
Until next week...
Live Your Dreams!
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