The Boy Who Found the Recipe for Success

How do watermelons and donuts create a recipe for BIGG Success? Find out on this week’s BIGG Success podcast. Click the player to listen. Find the show notes below.

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Bill Rosenberg was nine-years old. He often tagged along to work with his dad, who owned a grocery store in Boston.

One hot summer day, Bill’s dad made the boy responsible for selling watermelons. If the nine-year old didn’t sell them, they would go bad.

Bill set up a stand in front of the store.

And he stood there. And stood there. And stood there.

People weren’t buying!

The young man wasn’t about to give up. His dad was counting on him.

But he realized that he needed to get creative. He thought about it. He looked around. He got an idea. Maybe this would work.

He re-positioned his watermelon stand right by the streetcar stop. He barked out, “Bring a watermelon home! Surprise your family!”

More people saw his stand. They were impressed with the boy’s enthusiasm. Before long, all the watermelons were gone. Bill was a BIGG success!

What happened to Bill Rosenberg?

He went on to start Dunkin’ Donuts, a chain that sells over $1.3 billion of food and coffee in over 11,000 stores!

What lessons from Rosenburg’s success can we learn from and apply to our lives? Let’s go to The Professor’s Whiteboard for the recipe for success.

1st ingredient: Persistence

Let’s start with persistence. We all know the old saying, “If at first you don’t succeed – try, try again.” The first solution often seems obvious.

Can you see Bill’s dad pointing out the watermelons? Can you see Bill setting up a table right outside the store’s front door? It’s the path of least resistance. It’s not a bad location. It just wasn’t working on that particular day.

It’s a trap a lot of people fall into. They practice stubborn persistence. They keep trying the same, old thing – the same old solution – the same, old setup. But it rarely pays.

So what are you to do?

2nd ingredient: Add equal parts creativity

You have to come up with a second solution. That’s harder to do. You have to get more creative. You have to move your watermelon display to a higher traffic location.

3rd ingredient: Mix the two together to form creative persistence

This is the key ingredient in the recipe for success.

What if you add creativity and sales still lag? You can’t give up. But you can’t just keep on doing what isn’t working.
So, if you’re Bill, you try something different. You bark out a quick pitch. While the story doesn’t say so, we can imagine the first pitch Bill tried didn’t work. So he tried a fresh one. He tweaked until he found the right benefit.
And then it happened! BIGG success! He sold all his watermelons. He made his dad proud.

BIGG Takeaway

Creativity is more critical than ever in today’s rapidly changing world. Persistence has always been crucial. Put the two ingredients together and you have the recipe for BIGG success.

George “The Professor” & Mary-Lynn
Co-Founders, BIGG Success