Hot Dog Story

Once there was a man who had a hot dog stand; and this man was so proud of his product – he really believed that his dogs were the very best hot dogs that anyone ever made – that he would announce with great pride to the people passing by:  “Get them here, world’s best hot dogs, get them here.”  People would be so impressed by the enthusiasm in his voice that they would stop and buy his product.

The man did very well, so well in fact, that when his son got old enough, he sent the boy to college to study business administration, thinking that boy might enter the business with him when he got back.  All the time the boy was away at college, the father continued to sell his hot dogs with pride and with excitement.

 

The boy graduated and came back.  The father asked him, “What do you think of branching out and opening a second hot dog stand?  And maybe a third, and someday a fourth?

The son said to his father:  “Who are you talking to and what are you talking about?  Don’t you know that there is a recession being predicted?  Don’t you know the size of the national debt?  Don’t you know what interest rates are these days?  And don’t you know that when times get tough, the first thing people cut back on is eating out?  And don’t you know how many national chains of hot dog stands there are?

And the father, who didn’t read the newspaper, said:  “No, I didn’t know about any of those things – until you told me.”

But now that he was told all these reasons why nobody would buy hot dogs, he changed his tone.  Instead of bellowing out proudly:  “Get them here, world’s best hot dogs, get them here,” he said it timidly, half-heartedly, almost apologetically.  He whispered:  “Is there anyone who wants to buy a hot dog?”

And you know what happened?  Sure enough, the son turned out to be right.  He and other economists like him pre-dicted a recession; people lost confidence and sales went down – including hot dog sales. 

And the father said to the son: “Thanks my boy.  If I hadn’t sent you to college; and if you hadn’t gotten an MBA, I would never have known that my business was in trouble.”

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Rabbi Sally - The People's Rabbi