Two Small Stores One Ambition

Many years ago there were two stores which sat side by side on a quiet street in the lower west side of Manhattan, New York. These store were open by a pair of brothers who immigrated to this country admits hardships and tribulations. They were not like many other immigrants who came to the new country with nothing but the shirt on their backs, because they were hard-working.
Despite the challenges that eventually caused them to have tom emigrate from their home county they still managed to save up a small sum of money before the got on ship to cross the Atlantic. What was it that they did in the old country? They were tailors. A bit anticlimactic perhaps, but they were not simply the kind of Taylor that stitched an odd button or sowed a seam on a ripped pair of pants, although they were more than capable of doing that as well, no, they were the true old style tailors, which today would translate into, tailor and fashion designer.

They would dream up new looks and designs s, then they would order the material that they could not make themselves. Once received, they would experiment with their design concepts and after rendering it a success, would introduce it to their customers.
When the brothers got to the new country they opened there two separate shops right next door to each other and began to set up shop. They somehow managed to get along well at things like family gatherings and holiday celebrations, but as is the way with most brothers, a current of rivalry pulsated beneath the surface, each of them burning with the desire to outdo the other in their business.
The difference between the two and the one that proved to be the decisive one was that while the older brother was a fine tailor he was sentimental regarding traditional styles and ways of doing business. On the other hand the younger brother was accepting of modern ways.
After a number of years of hard work and reputation building the two brothers seemed to be doing about the same in terms of sales and growth until one day the younger brother pulled ahead. How did he manage to do this? He went out and got himself two dark wood mannequins. And after that his customers started buying more at a time as well as more often.
The mannequins had a profound effect. Not I know that it is hard to believe that something that is so trivial today would make so profound an influence, but what is important remember is that back the mannequins were hardly ever used. The end of the story is that the younger brother became so successful that eventually he gave his older brother a job because the older brother went out of business.
The point to all this is that it is not so much about mannequins as it is about accepting new business ideas. Those who understand that business is alive and in order to succeed one must adapt oneself are the ones who end up making it to the top. As far as the others are concerned, they end up spending a lot of time lamenting the good old days and I think that perhaps it's because they don't enjoy the ones that they are actually living now.