Throughout my career I've run into dozens of things my managers told me was impossible. They range from the very large tasks that you have to take a few runs at to stuff you could fix in an afternoon. One of the strongest tools I've learned over the years to solve the "impossible" is asking "Why not?".
It sounds simple enough right? Just ask a question and see what kind of response you get. Wisdom is knowing that you don't know everything...who why not ask "why not?"? Honestly, I think people are afraid of the question. Asking a question like that may convey you're lack of understanding of a situation or the material at hand. But when you're facing the "impossible" task does anyone have a handle on what you're doing?
Back in my wine and spirit days I had a bar in my territory that was in a rough part of town. The last time I was there they were demolishing the garage across the street after a car crashed into the wall during a gunfight. At 6' 3" 350lbs they would walk me, 10 feet, from the door to my car to make sure I was safe...it was a sketchy neighborhood to say the least.
Strangely in this bar they sold a ton of Jagermiester. They sold more than any other bar for several blocks. They often ordered cases of Jager just to make it through a holiday weekend. This was unheard of in the on-premise (bar) side of the business, especially since they didn't have a Jager tap machine.
Jagermiester tap machines are machines that help you print money. Sidney Frank, the parent company, would sell the tap machine for $300 and then give you 6 bottles free to pay off the tap machine. If you do some quick math you spent $300 and made twice that selling Jager Bombs.
This bar had refused to buy a tap machine. Literally turning down someone who was trying to stuff hundreds of dollars into their pocket each night! When I got the account they told me to not even bother...they'd never get one.
After talking to Frank, the owner, he was reluctant to spend any cash since he was doing just fine with his Jager sales. He didn't say "NO" to the tap machine but he didn't really seem too excited about it. One day I finally asked him "why not?". His answer made my jaw drop.
The bar had a very narrow back bar. So narrow that you could only go 2 or 3 glasses deep on the counter before you were out of room. The liquor bottles were on shelves above the counter top or below it.
Franks response to "why not?"...the guy who was crushing the numbers out of a hole in the wall... "I can't fit it on my bar." He was right the tap machine took up a pretty good sized foot print on the bar, 11" x 17" roughly. If you put the machine in the "standard" orientation it would hang over the edge and would most likely end up on the floor.
"Frank, have you tried to put it on the bar..sideways?" nobody, and I mean nobody in the 15 years they had tap machines had EVER considered turning the tap machine 90 degrees so it fit on his bar! Seriously, at least 30 different people in the business including the owners of the company and representatives from Jagermiester themselves had NEVER considered turning the machine 90 degrees. It works exactly the same and, in my opinion, has a greater billboarding effect in the bar.
I borrowed a sample machine we had in the warehouse and brought it to the bar to prove to Frank that the machine would not only fit but would work fine...90 degrees from what he was thinking. We set it up and did a normal Thursday night crowd. Nothing special and nothing extra from me...except the tap machine.
I hung around for 2 hours and sat at the end of the bar, being eyeballed by everyone in there as if I didn't belong, and watched. In 2 hours Franks bar did almost 400 shots of Jagermiester. The state record at the time in 2 hours, at a "mainstream bar" was 140. I had to bring Frank another case of Jagermiester the next day as he had gone through more than 12 bottles in a single night.
Frank and the crew continued to drink Jagermiester like it was water at the bar. When the Jager Bus came to town for the college world series his bar was at the top of the list to set up. Because of the neighborhood we did a short promo with the bus from 4-6 and had the Jager people "chaperoned" by several "local" guys to ensure their safety.
I was the top Jagermiester salesman in the state of Nebraska for that year. Crushing my previous year with a 250% increase in sales. When I was given a bottle of Jager and a leather jacket with the logo embroidered on the back I was asked, "what was your secret?". I held out my hands like I was holding a box and said, "I asked 'why not?'...and I turned the tap machine 90 degrees".
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