PRIVATE CONVICTIONS
When I worked in Toronto for a food processing plant, I believed we had the best products on the market. I would tell my customers that my products were worth the twenty cents a pound more than my competitors, because they were better, and I really believed they were.
Then one day we were having a sales meeting, and the national sales manager brought out a tray of cold cuts. He said, "Here are five different brands, including our own, and I want you to see if you can pick our product out from the rest." We all tasted them and picked the same one, because it was the best. And do you know something? It was our major competitor, and their product was twenty cents a pound cheaper than ours. Until then, I had a private conviction that we were the best, but reality showed me different.