Business
Where’$ the Money? by Issamar Ginzberg
Two Dining Room Walls With Art There’s a guy I’ve known since childhood — both our families davened (See also my article “Rothko or Rockefeller,” published here on Novemin Rav Frankel’s shul on East 21st Street in Flatbush. ber 26, 2014.) He is a travel agent, zocheh to be living, like me, in Yerushalayim. PeoHow does your product tell a story? What are people buying beyond ple know he will have the answer to many an arcane travel question. the physical product? What taps into each of our fertile imaginations? My friend has something hanging on his dining room wall that makes One of my clients is a doctor who moved to Israel for his children’s chifor interesting conversation: an elephant painting. nuch needs. When you read his story and learn that he was a doctor to a “Why would a heimishe yungerman have a painting of an elephant in European monarch, you might change your opinion of him as “another his dining room?” you might be thinking. “Okay, a painting of a Jewish doctor, very nice bedside manner and expertise in medicine” to a much scene, or a landscape, or maybe even a piece of modern art ... but a picture more powerful, “If he’s good enough for the royal family, he’s obviously of an elephant??” worth what he charges ... and waiting in the waiting room to get a doctor Wait! of his caliber through Kupat Cholim (an Israeli health management orgaGo back and read what I wrote again — I didn’t say what you think I nization that covers all citizens) is a small price to pay!” (Yes, he also has did. a private practice.) Reb Moshe Paskesz does NOT have a painting of an elephant in his Whenever you enter a major supermarket, the opening is wide ... fresh salon; rather, it’s a very decent painting of flowers. fruits of different colors greet you, or maybe flowers. So even when you What makes it a unique conversation piece is that it was painted, pass the detergent, or even worse, the pet food aisle (I can see you wrinbefore Reb Moshe’s eyes, by a four-legged pachyderm. It’s just a painting kle your nose reading this), you still perceive this supermarket as a wideof flowers, but what makes it so fascinating is that it was created in a way aisled place of delicious-smelling goodness! that stretches our thoughts of what Hashem’s non-human creations are And for those of you who are unaware, the “fresh bakery scent”is capable of. We know a monkey can open a banana and a seal can swim sometimes piped into bakeries when the ovens are off, because the ownthrough rings held by a circus trainer. But an elephant ... painting?! ers know that it draws customers in and creates the ambience. Similarly, The picture is worth a lot more because of its unique story. Which leads when prospective buyers come to see a house, they will smell fresh chocme to another person — my good friend, Reb Yosef Sherman. Reb Yosef olate chip cookies. The sellers know that potential buyers are more likely gives shiurim in Ohr Somayach, has a master’s degree from Ecole de Mar- to put in an offer, and a higher offer, when the house has warm, fragrant, seille, and has a unique background that gives him a “story.”(He’s lived freshly baked cookies on the counter. in China, Lebanon, Germany You have a story. Your busiand elsewhere.) He, too, is a talness has a story. And either you ented entrepreneur and artist tell the story the way you want (l’havdil between artist l’artist!) people to know it, or people What makes it a unique conversation piece is that it whose paintings express feelwill conjure up their own story, was painted by a four-legged pachyderm. ings. In fact, one of his paintings within moments, in their head hangs in my dining room. — and it may be very different Reb Yosef has paintings than the story you want to tell. hanging in embassies of counThink of a gift you’ve gottries around the world, and ten. Is it the trinket or the story every time there is a ceremony behind it that gives it its value to where he presents his art as a you? Tell your business’s story gift to the people of yet anothto the world — it’s the hishtadlus er country, all his art becomes of doing so that opens people to more valuable. buying from you! Paintings have the combined Issamar Ginzberg is an intervalue of the canvas, the cost of nationally renowned columnist, materials, and a variable known speaker and advisor to businessas “the artist.” Therefore, in es and entrepreneurs across the essence, it’s the artist’s unique globe. He can be reached by e-mail story told through the art that Oli Scarff/Getty Images at rabbiissamar@gmail.com. gives a painting its true value. 34
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21 Tammuz 5775
7/8/2015 12:10:28 AM