Shocking viewpoint of developer towards selling chili pepper

A few years ago, many people share quite of an interesting story on Facebook that goes like this. 

If you have bought chili pepper before, you must have known that you cannot know by looks which one is spicy or not. However, each person have their own preference, some like it spicy, but some do not, so the question "Is this chili pepper spicy?" is always hard to answer. A salesperson told the seller this tip: Divide your chili peppers into 2 piles, when people ask the question, tell them that: This side is spicy, this side isn't. Then, the customer will make their choice to their needs.

Surprisingly, the seller laughed and said: That trick is outdated, I have a better one. We will divide them into two piles and tell people that: The big one is spicier. After a while, if there is a big difference in both sides, divide them into two again and tell people that: The fresher looking one is spicier... Eventually, we can be sure that we can sell the most out of them.

I normally do not care much about articles like that, but I have to admit this is quite of an interesting story on the mindset of businesspeople. When I tell the story for others in the office, people are surprised with this new sale method, except for one friend of mine. 

I was taken aback when he perceived the story differently. The first thing he told me after hearing the story was: That story is for losers. I know that he always has his own opinions. 

This is how he views the story. 

First of all, tips, know-hows, or tricks of the trade, whatever you call it, the point is that you are providing false information for customers to get them to buy your products. It doesn't matter if you work in sales or tech, that is unacceptable. 

Secondly, for other people, it is normal that they cannot tell if the chili pepper is spicy or not, but if you spend 15 years of your life to sell chili pepper, under no circumstances are you allowed to say that.

Like professional gardener, they can look at a growing flower and tell how many flowers will there be, and what the colors are. Or fragrance specialists can tell the difference between millions of different perfumes. That is true, and so-called specialists must be like that. Tech people are also like that, we must be the specialist in our field. When you listen to the client's spec, you must know how to optimize the project, as well as its strengths and weaknesses. 

When we are still coworkers, he is well known for his straightforwardness. He told me that his academic major is completely irrelevant to programming, and he only started to pursue this career when he got accepted into the company. He went very far in a flash, and within a short period of time, he was well-received by his teammates as well as the leaders and managers. 

What characteristic formed such person? It turns out, he loves to dig deep into the unknown. After that day, I realized that mindset is the most important factor for him to do what he wants. 

Having no place for shallow thinking, he always has a strict attitude towards himself with discipline, professionalism, high demands, clear goals, no compromise. Those things seem simple, but it is not at all easy to do, not to mention pursue. 

I believe that in order to succeed in any field, we need to build that kind of mindset! Do not do everything just to get it done. You will never succeed with such mindset. Such "iron-fisted" mindset on his own career helps him get to become the successful person today. 

And I, I am honored to be inspired by such teammate.