We constantly receive requests for information on ways of cutting down expenses in everyday mediocre business. We mostly avoid those requests, but during the last two weeks we have been witnessing some amazing results produced by even more amazing practices. Not all of this is necessarily true, but mostly it is very inspirational – if you manage to read between the lines succesfully!
A friend of mine once told me a tale of a typical hard-working entrepreneur. This man, we might call him Tobias Hucklenbeck for want of a better fake name, had inherited a successful woodworking business from his father, who had in turn inherited it not from anyone – he had established it himself. It was, in other words, a business to be reckoned with.
Each morning Tobias walked into the forest to cut down some timber. He had to fell a tree and saw it into planks using only an old hacksaw, half of whose teeth were missing. Then he had to dry those planks, often in a blizzard, and carry them back to his workshop twenty miles uphill. Each day he had to build one table and four stools with decorative carvings worthy of Grinling Gibbons. It was backbreaking work, and Tobias earned only just enough to keep his family alive.
One year Tobias, who was by now an old man with numerous ailments, decided he had seen enough trouble in his life and wrote to his aunt – a rich widow – to ask for help. The widow refused, saying that a man ought to be able to take care of himself.
Tobias was at the end of his tether. He wrote to another aunt, likewise a rich widow, and begged for help. The other aunt also refused, saying that a man ought to be able to fend for himself. Tobias sighed and got back to his sawing and carving.
The next year Tobias wrote an angry letter to a third aunt, who replied saying it was not her fault Tobias hadn’t got any help from the other two aunts. Tobias in turn sent a reply telling her that he now simply had no time to write any more letters, and that he actually didn’t need the money any longer because he was ready to retire. The third aunt sent him a letter which said: “Fine, but I think retirement suits only those who have been able to take care of themselves, and since you have constantly been whining for material help from weak old women, I don’t think you are entitled to any money from the government. Retire if you must, but we will send a petition to the Ministry of Finance and tell them not to send you any money.” Tobias, upon receiving the letter, sighed and went back to his backbreaking work which only just kept him alive.
When I heard this story I was first amazed at how resourceful the old ladies were. Not only did they deny Tobias any money, but one of them even had enough backbone to warn the authorities about a relative instead of giving in to some sentimental notion of blood being thicker than water.
My second notion had to do with Tobias’ working methods. Instead of using an old hacksaw – well, you get my point, I’m sure.
Tobias is now long dead. Those aunts are dead. The days of small-scale private business are practically over. Tables are now made in great big shiny factories, as well as chairs. If anything at all has survived, it is the entrepreneurial spirit that has made us what we are. Let us not lose sight of those grand old days, and we can still hope to have a future.