Implement That Plan

My Dad celebrated a mile post this past Sunday.  We applauded his 85^th birthday.  Dad is a remarkable person ---

Christmas 1992 Dad gave each of us an essay of some of the “happenings” in his life.  He has often indicated there were many things he didn't write; however here’s a story he did share:

The year was 1946, Dad was 16 years old.   

“I (Tom Campbell) was elected president of the FFA (Future Farmers of America), in this capacity I went to the state convention at San Antonio (Texas). 

The meeting was held at the Gunter Hotel and while I was awaiting a meeting I happened to converse with an elderly man seated next to me in the lobby.   His name was W.A. Harding. He explained to me he was the owner and grower of 1,200 acres of lemon trees.  The lemons were of a variety that could not easily be shipped due to their thin skin (Meyer Lemons) and he proposed to juice these lemons and preserve them with a preservative the military had used during the war…

I asked Mr. Harding what his plan for selling this lemon juice was and he told me he had not made any arrangements to sell and distribute the finished product.  I told him my Dad was a good salesman and that he might be interested in selling his products.  He said contact your Dad and see if he is interested.  I called Dad and told him about Mr. Harding.  That day Dad came to San Antonio and during the next three days The Puretex Lemon Juice Company was organized.  Mr. Harding was to be responsible for the juicing and bottling of the lemons and Dad and me would distribute and sell.  The State of Texas was divided at Ft. Worth, everything west of a north-south line would be covered by me and all east of that line would be the area covered by my Father. 

We had a very simple sales plan.

 We would ask for an order (knowing that the grocery man would say no).  Our next approach was consignment, that is if the lemon juice sold he would pay for it and reorder (nine out of ten would not even do this).  Our final offer was we would give them a dozen bottles if they would agree to try and sell it.  Our second year in business we gave away 10,000 gallons of lemon juice.  My fourth year of selling lemon juice I sold 50,000 gallons of juice in 3 oz. bottles…”

Think for just a moment about how remarkable this is.

A kid Introduced himself to a business man, listened to the details, developed a plan in his head and took action to implement his plan. My Dad helped to bring a new product to Texas grocery market.

Yes, there are occasions which when immediately implemented, open doors of opportunity and impact generations of people.

Just in case you had not put it all together this was when “reconstituted lemon juice” --- the green bottle you probably have in your refrigerator today --- came to pass!