The Wooden Bowl Message

There are those people who love to give advice. This advice is given without being asked, and is offered at every opportunity they can get. The unusual thing is that some of these people are the ones that do not like to accept advice given to them.

There is one person that comes to mind immediately when I think of people who love to tell others what they should change. This is a person who has been a wood worker for many, many years and sells some great products at a local market. Since we also sell craft products, we got to know him very well over the years.

Now, the craft market is very interesting and also is one that requires you to change your product mix from time to time. These products need to meet the market conditions especially in pricing. With any slow economic time what with every thing going up in price including gas, a product line needs to offer some very reasonably priced items to attract customers.

One thing we learned very early on was to change our product line every year we brought our goods for display. And, it was this very woodcrafter that suggested we try different products not just the ones we preferred to make and sell. But, over the last several years, we have noticed that year in and year out, he continues to bring the same products to sell and with rather high price tags.

In an attempt to help him because he had helped us, and noticing that his customer base had severely dropped and sales were really down, we spoke to him suggesting he start to develop a line of products that were smaller and a little less expensive. Well, it was quite amazing what his reaction was. He said he didn't need to change his products, he was quite happy doing what he always did. And, as time went on, sales continued to drop, and he started to complain. It became quite common that very market day the same thing would happen with fewer sales and even greater complaints.

Even though we spoke to him again and offered to help him develop a different product mix, he would refuse to change.

The message is clear. You can choose to change, or you can remain where you are doing what you have always done. And, the only person who can choose to change is you. It doesn't matter whether you are the type of person who offers advice to others to change, you are the only person who can accept that change is necessary and do it, or you can stay stuck.