A man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs was hard of hearing, so he had no radio. He had trouble with his eyes, so he read no newspapers. But he sold good hot dogs. He put up signs on the highway advertising them. He stood on the side of the road and cried, “Buy a hot dog, mister?” And people bought his hot dogs. He increased his meat and bun orders. He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade. He finally got his son to come home from college to help out. But then something happened. “Father, haven’t you been listening to the radio?” his son asked. “Haven’t you been reading the newspaper? There is a big recession on. The European situation is terrible. The domestic situation is worse.”

The father thought, “Well, my son’s been to college, he read the papers and he listens to the radio, and he ought to know.” So the father cut down his meat and bun orders, took down his signs and no longer bothered to stand out on the highway to sell his hot dogs. His sales fell overnight. “You’re right, son,” he father said to the boy. “We certainly are in the middle of a big recession.”

John Maxwell

Source: John Maxwell, 1993, The Winning Attitude, Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, p.121