I was starting a business and needed a desk. My good friend Bob had an old desk with wear marks and unsteady legs. My friend thought I most likely would not want his beat up old desk but would sell it to me for fifty dollars. I walk out of his house that day less a fifty dollar bill and with a desk in the back of my truck.
Light brown with numerous scratch marks and dozens of black stains in the drawers, the desk obviously saw many hours of use. A few days later after placing the desk in my office, my friend Bob stopped by. He was concerned because he felt my desk should be something more polished. I turned to Bob and said “our customers don’t care what type of desk I have in my office. Our customers care about the price and quality of our products.”
I did touch up the desk to make it neat and clean, but maintained its rustic look. Having owned and operated various businesses, I knew it was more important to focus on the customer than on the furniture in my office. Besides, we had just begun our business and our sales where not even fifty dollars a month.
The business grew from monthly sales of less than fifty dollars to more than fifty dollars every five minutes, changing our financial position dramatically. During this period I became more aware of how old the desk appeared.
