A man was down on his luck and really needed a job. He saw an advertisement in the newspaper for a sales position. He didn’t know anything about sales, but he thought he could learn, so he contacted the company. “It’s simple,” explained the hiring manager. “You go door to door selling toothbrushes. Everyone needs a toothbrush, therefore you should be able to sell a lot of them.

The man agreed and headed out to a large home complex for the day. When he returned to the office, he was questioned about his day. “I sold one toothbrush,” he explained. The hiring manager wasn’t pleased. “Look, I understand it’s your first day in sales, so I’ll excuse it this time. But you’ll need to sell more than one if you want to keep your job.” The next day, the man moved to a different neighborhood.

He returned to the workplace at the end of the day and announced, “I sold two toothbrushes today!” Now the hiring manager was outraged. “That is not nearly enough! You have one more day to get it right. If you don’t sell a lot more tomorrow, you’ll be fired. When the man came back to the office at the end of the next day, again he was asked how he did.

“I sold 1500 toothbrushes!” he announced. “Oh, my God!” exclaimed the hiring manager. “That is incredible. It’s more than anyone has sold in a single day previously.” “How did you do it?” “Well,” he told me, “I went to a grocery store and set up a table outside with some chips and some dip.” “When folks came out of the store I asked them to try it.”

“They would taste it and say, ‘This dip tastes like shit!'” And I’d say… “It is! Would you like to buy a toothbrush?”