The early issues of Electrical Wholesaling's predecessor, The Jobber's Salesman, contained many humorous words of wisdom and inspirational stories. Many of those stories' messages still ring true today, 80 years later. Here's an excerpt from a 1920 issue:

Selling and advertising effort, when you are behind with your orders, is a preparation - a prudence - for the period when you are ahead with orders.

The other day a fish monger went through the streets of a small New England town, blowing a horn and between blasts yelling "Scup and scrod!" - two well known kinds of fish in that part of the country.

A woman asked for some scup.

"Haven't got any scup," said the fish monger.

"Then what are you yelling `scup' for?"

"Why," replied the fish monger, "I didn't want you to forget scup when I got scup!"

Want to use this article? Click here for options!
© 2007 Penton Media, Inc.