An entertaining story about an eccentric business man named Timothy Dexter [1747-1806] who, despite receiving and implementing terrible business advice, managed to succeed over and over. Foresight, extraordinary luck, or a stellar belief system?
Dexter was an eccentric businessman who had very little schooling and was "nearly illiterate." He was working as a farm laborer at the age of 8. As an adult, he managed to marry a rich widow.
He bought large amounts of Continental currency that was worthless at the time. After the Revolutionary war was over, the government bought its notes back at 1% face value and the state of Massachusetts paid its own notes at face value. He became a very wealthy man. He purchased ships and began an expert business to the West Indies and Europe. Excerpts from the Wiki:
“Because he was largely uneducated, his business sense was considered peculiar. He was advised to send warming pans (used to heat sheets in the cold New England winters) for sale to the West Indies, a tropical area. This advice was a deliberate ploy by other businessmen to get him bankrupted. His [ship] captain sold them as ladles for the local molasses industry and made a good profit.
"Next, Dexter sent wool mittens to the same place, where Asian merchants bought them for export to Siberia.
"People jokingly told him to “ship coal to Newcastle.” He did so during a miners' strike at the time, and his cargo was sold at a premium.
"At another time, practical jokers told him he could make money shipping gloves to the South Sea Islands. His ships arrived there in time to sell the gloves to Portuguese boats on their way to China.
"He exported Bibles to the East Indies and stray cats to Caribbean islands and again made a profit: Eastern missionaries were in need of the Bibles and the Caribbean welcomed a solution to rat infestation."
And finally: “At age 50, Dexter authored
A Pickle for the Knowing Ones or Plain Truth in a Homespun Dress, in which he complained about politicians, the clergy, and his wife. The book contained 8,847 words and 33,864 letters, but without punctuation and seemingly random capitalization. Dexter initially handed his book out for free, but it became popular and was reprinted eight times.
"
In the second edition, Dexter added an extra page which consisted of 13 lines of punctuation marks with the instructions that readers could distribute them as they pleased.”There are some issues with the Wiki article that need to be researched, but there are enough stories out there about him. Here's an excellent article about him, worth reading:
https://priceonomics.com/the-strange-life-of-lord-timothy-dexter/, with more details than the Wiki. For example:
"When Dexter purchased several large ships and announced his intentions to launch a business in international trade, his fed-up neighbors reportedly seized the opportunity to provide him with horrible investment ventures, in the hopes that he’d bankrupt himself and be forced to move.
One of these neighbors recommended that Dexter sell warming pans (wide, flat brass pans with long handles used for warming beds in the 18th century) in the West Indies (a European colonial territory known for its year-round hot weather). The trusting Dexter purchased no less than 42,000 of the pans, dispersed them in nine shipping vessels, and set off to sell them -- his actions, all the while, eliciting thunderous laughter from experienced traders. But it was Dexter who got the last chuckle: when he arrived and found no need for warming devices, he rebranded them as ladles and sold them to sugar and molasses plantation owners. The demand was so great that each owner clamored to buy at least three or four; Dexter marked up the pans by 79%, and returned with an even greater fortune."
Lol. Reminds me of John Candy in
Planes, Trains and Automobiles selling shower curtain rings as earrings, etc. Another classic.
Wiki here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Dexter
