There's a florist in a regional city.
She has a small shopfront, a website that’s basic, but it's all she can afford, and a slowly growing list of regular customers who like her style.
She’s working long hours to make her small enterprise a success, and she runs a lean ship, but it all seems to be taking longer than she thought to take off.
Sound familiar?
But here's a dilemma. She gets some good orders online.
When people order flowers online, they're usually delivered by a local florist.
Which means the florist usually won't know the person who orders the flowers, or the person who receives them!
She could deliver the very best effort and the most beautiful flowers she has in stock, but the sender will never know her identity, nor buy from her again!
Or she can use up the damaged stock and the fading flowers, confident that the sender will never know her identity, nor buy from her again!
If you were the florist, what would you do?
But we all have the dilemma.
You can hide or you can show pride. You can cut corners, or strive to always deliver more in 'value' than you take in payment.
And it turns out that the florist who doesn't use up the damaged stock and the fading flowers, who doesn't cut corners, never seems to have trouble affording better stuff!
Take pride, and strive to be of service. It's the recipe for long term success.