TIDBITS-9

T.I.D. – Today’s Inspirational Devotion


“God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort which should be the means of destroying any of His creatures!” – John Chapman

John Chapman (1774-1854) The mission of John Chapman has been immortalized in America through stories, legends, books, cartoons, even a memorial highway in Ohio. His adventures were diverse, and some even claim that he traveled as far west as California, planting his orchards along the way.


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The biography of the businessman behind the legend of Johnny Appleseed tells a similar story. While most people believe that the apple-sowing mendicant was a fictional character, the truth is that there was a real person upon whom the Johnny Appleseed folklore and mythology is based. John Chapman was his name, and biographer and historian Robert Price chronicled his business life in a book published in 1954. Chapman was, for all intents and purposes, one of the first franchisers in the USA. Although myth describes him as someone who simply walked around mindlessly or randomly planting apple trees, he actually engaged in a carefully conceived business that was absolutely recession-proof. Upon his death in 1845 he owned more than 1,200 acres of prime real estate because he found a product to sell and a way to deliver it to customers that was unique, ingenious, and profitable through thick and thin.

Frontier settlers needed sugar, but it was prohibitively expensive. A more affordable substitute was sweeteners made from apples – what we today refer to as fructose. Apples were also a valuable foodstuff by themselves. But apple trees were few and far between in the wilderness of North America. So Chapman would go deep into the frontier, plant an orchard, and then – as the settlers arrived – he would sell the young trees to them. By establishing these frontier tree farms or nurseries across the USA, he ensured a strong demand for his product. He didn’t even have to deal with labor intensive apple cultivation and harvesting, he just sold young trees that grew easily in the fertile frontier soil.

His overhead was tiny, because he would use the seeds of one tree to grow dozens of others in a true franchise spirit. But each sapling he sold brought a good price. Even though settlers had no extra money, they considered the purchase of a healthy tree to be a wise long-term investment. And according to many land grant laws that were intended to discourage real estate speculation, land owners were required to plant a minimum number of fruit trees on their homesteads. So Chapman had a product that people not only wanted, but were also required by law to have. Highly motivated customers came to him by word of mouth.

In order to keep moving, branch out, and stay ahead of the national migration of his customers, Chapman decided to hire people to manage his orchards in his absence. He would go somewhere, start a new nursery, and then hire and train a local person to run it and bank the profits which he shared with them. Eventually Chapman had an entire network of nurseries that were paying him dividends, so he moved back to his native Ohio and retired as a very wealthy man as the money kept rolling in from his national orchard business.

When he first began to ply his trade he was in poverty, but by the time he died his business was worth millions in today’s inflation-adjusted dollars. His business was indispensable, and people sought him out to buy his products. In short, he had an exemplary business model. When an employee becomes indispensable to a boss they ensure that they won’t be fired and will be first in line for a promotion. Similarly, those businesses that become essential and irreplaceable to their customers thrive with longevity while other companies tread water and eventually succumb to red ink.