As Thanksgiving in the United States is upon us once again, I’d like to take time to thank all those companies who strive to make their customers and prospects more intelligent through the use of great content.
But first … a personal story.
Most people don’t know this, but I grew up around a funeral home. My grandfather, Leo Groff, was an entrepreneur who ran the largest funeral home in Sandusky, Ohio (my hometown). While my friends were out playing basketball or pick-up baseball games, I was hanging around the funeral home watching my grandfather and my uncle work (this was not as bad as you are probably imagining). Actually, my grandfather was one of the main reasons I wanted to start my own business.
By the time I was in my teens, my grandfather was around the funeral home mostly to stay busy, while my uncle ran the business. While I did some odd jobs around the funeral home, my main job was to take my grandpa to lunch and listen to his stories.
One story in particular resonated with me. During the Depression, many of my grandfather’s customers didn’t have the money to pay for a funeral. Loved ones would come to my grandpa, telling him that they had no money, but still wanted a proper burial for their deceased. So, my grandfather would do the embalming and funeral services in exchange for rings, lockets, bracelets, and trinkets of all kinds.
A few years before my grandfather passed away, he showed me this old box, which had to be well over 50 years old. In the box were the rings, lockets, bracelets, and trinkets that paid for those funerals. When I saw this, I asked why he didn’t sell them for money or give them back. He said, and I’ll never forget this, “Back in those days, pride was all some people had. They had nothing but needed something. They were able to keep their pride by giving me these pieces of jewelry. So I couldn’t give them back. I also couldn’t sell them because each of these pieces is a reminder of a small thing that I could do that made a huge impact in someone’s life.”
