How Farmer Jones lost a sale
16 Dec 2007
This week I decided to use the story of Farmer Jones as a light hearted way of illustrating a serious trap that many people fall into which is creating a non-positive outcome to a situation just by thinking in a non-positive rather than a positive way.
Mr Jones, a farmer, needed to plough his field before the dry spell set in, but his own plough had broken. "I know, I'll ask my neighbour, farmer Smith, if I can borrow his plough. He's a good man; I'm sure he'll have done his ploughing by now and he'll be glad to lend me his machine." So farmer Jones began to walk the four fields to Smith's farm.
After a field of walking, farmer Jones said to himself, "I hope that farmer Smith has finished all his own ploughing or he'll not be able to lend me his machine."
Then after a few more minutes of worrying and walking, farmer Jones said to himself, "And what if Smith’s plough is old and on its’ last legs - he'll never be wanting to lend it to me will he?"
And after another field, farmer Jones said to himself, "Farmer Smith was never a very helpful fellow, I reckon maybe he won't be too keen to lend me his plough even if it's in perfect working order and he's finished all his own ploughing weeks ago."
As farmer Jones arrives at farmer Smith’s farm, farmer Jones is thinking to himself, "That old Smith can be a mean old fellow. I reckon even if he's got all his ploughing done, and his own machine is sitting there doing nothing, he'll not lend it to me just so he can watch me go to ruin."
Farmer Jones then walked up farmer Smith’s front path, knocked on the door, and farmer Smith answered.
"Well good morning Jones, what can I do for you?" asked farmer Smith. And farmer Jones, with eyes bulging and a red face said, "Mr Smith, you can take your bloody plough, and you can stick it up your back side!"
This is my last blog for 2007. I wish you a wonderful Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2008.