The Man Who Sold Hot Dogs

The Man Who Sold Hot Dogs
Author Unknown. Found on an old newsletter from Dale Carnegie Courses.

There was a man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs.

He was hard of hearing, so he had no radio. He had trouble with his eyes, so he had no newspapers. But he sold good hot dogs.

He put up a sign on the highway to tell people how good they were. He stood by the side of the road and cried: “Buy a hot dog, Mister?”

And people bought.

He increased meat and bun orders. He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade. He got his son home from college to help him out. But then something happened.

His son said, “Father, haven’t you been listening to the radio? There is a big depression on. The European situation is terrible. The domestic situation is worse.”

Whereupon the father thought, “Well my son has been to college. He reads the papers and listens to the radio and he ought to know.”

So the father cut down on his meat and bun orders, took down his advertising signs, and no longer bothered to stand out on the highway to sell hot dogs. And his hot dog sales fell almost overnight.

“You are right, son,” the father said to the boy. “We certainly are in the middle of a great depression.”

Don't criticize condemn or complain.

Principle number one in Dale Carnegie’s classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People is “Don’t criticize condemn or complain. Easy to say; easy to remember; challenging for some of us to implement.


And it’s very weird – criticism seems to be defined by the criticized – not by the criticizer. Have you ever been just giving information and someone – like your spouse – says “Stop criticizing.” In my mind it wasn’t criticism.


Anyway today the reverse happened. Ellie and I were doing our annual “Put the deck furniture and the hoses into storage for the winter” exercise. Ellie wanted to be sure the chairs were clean of bird droppings before I hauled them to the garage attic. So after she’d cleaned them, and they had dried in the sun, I started to carry them. And I noticed one chair still had bird pooh on it.
I said “Didn’t you clean this chair?” Now I know that wording a question that way can – and often is – heard as criticism. It’s possible that I was even a little sarcastic (maybe). But Ellie took that comment as helpful information. She appreciated that I noticed!


So here’s a clue to criticism. In an area where the other person is confident and competent – like seeing dirt, making things clean, taking care of stuff – a comment like mine is helpful. Had I made the same comment in an area of less confidence or competence, it would have been seen as negative criticism.


So I guess that brings us to how important it is to know the other person. That’s another idea from the same book: "Try to honestly see things from the other person’s point of view."

Words can make a difference

This video has lots of meanings, I suppose. It made me think of how I can use my talents, gifts, resources . . . to make a difference.

It's called "The Story of a Sign." Stay with it.

The Owl in the Back Yard

Okay, you might not believe this story. Wednesday morning, Ellie called me and said, “Steve, there’s an owl on our deck!” So I ran down stairs from our bedroom, looked out the deck off the kitchen and there was an owl – about 18” tall.

It flew to a tree about 30 feet from the house and sat there all day! Apparently it went hunting that night, but it was back again the next day. Friday morning he was gone!