Is my tailor a better businessman than Michael Roth?

To be honest, no, he's not. I'm sure my tailor couldn't run an ultra-galactic multi-billion dollar communications network.

Nevertheless -- here's something interesting.

I just lost 30 pounds since May. Got inspired by what Dooner had reputedly done when he wanted to be CEO of IPG (lost 60 lbs reputedly) and just decided to lose them. Finally, my wife prevailed on me to buy some clothes, so I went to Macy's, bought 8 pairs of pants and took them to my tailor. Along the way, I also had another, older, pair, where the cuff had torn lose and was dragging a bit.

After measuring all the pants, I also showed him my torn-cuff pants.

"Can you fix it?" I asked.
"Sure. No problem. $8."
"But I just gave you $96 worth of business and this will take you a couple of minutes to fix." I said
"A bit more. I have to line it up, iron, sew it, re-iron. $8." he said "Cuffs are normally $15, but this is only one leg, so one-half. $8"

He knew what his job entailed. What the end result was going to be. How I would judge if his work was good. And he knew his price. $8.

Any ad agency would have done it for free.

Think about that next time you are sitting down in front of a client.

$8.

By the way, this is his shop.