Working Backwards

There is or at least there was this famous company started by three Israelis that literally crashed onto the American jeans market in the 1970s taking on long-established companies like Levi Strauss and Lee.

The secret to their success was that they worked backwards.

What did they do?

They took out full-page ads in every major American magazine and newspaper from the New York Times and down and bombarded the airways with their new company’s jingle about their product “Jordache Jeans.” And people all over the country started going in droves to clothing stores asking for Jordache Jeans. So many people asked for them that the salesmen reported it to their managers who reported it to their supervisors who reported it to the buyers who reported it to the owners. Who started frantically calling Jordache for orders. Orders in the millions. Which Jordache wasn’t even set up to handle.

But very quickly Jordache became Number One.

I heard another great “working backwards” story about this woman who dressed for Shabbos.

She was a certified shlumper. Even her tichel wouldn’t stay straight but she’d just insist her head was crooked. Then she had guests for Shabbos guests who were staying over. One of these guests wasn’t feeling well but kept saying she had to get dressed to honor the Shabbos. And her hostess the one whose tichel was always crooked watched as this woman who barely had the strength to eat made sure to be dressed beautifully to light her candles.