What a Mango Taught Me

Here's a short story my mom shared while eating fresh mangoes for dessert after lunch the other day.

While eating the scored mango halves with spoons, my mom begins her story.

"You know when I was little, your lola [grandmother] would cut these mangoes and we would all fight for the halves." My mom is referring to her 9 brothers and sisters--a scene of chaos I can imagine as endless hands fight for the delicious fruit in the hot Philippine weather.

"Because she knew that we all wanted the halves and not the center with the bone [seed], what she did was cut the mango so that more of the fruit was on the bone." She continues, "The halves we usually wanted were so thin that we now wanted the bone since it had most of the fruit."

I sat there, eating my half of the mango and gestured for her to take the bone [seed]. I never wanted that part since I was little because I knew there wasn't as much fruit there. Now if my mom cut it up so that more of the fruit is now on the bone, then I'd think different and fight for that bone as my mom's brothers and sister would.

A fan of Seth Godin's blog, this short story resonated with me a lot because of how business-minded I've become. In short, how do you make something undesired desirable? That is the million-dollar question for any businessman.