Judging future business owners!

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of being a judge at the Youth Entrepreurs convention in Oslo.

My role was to find the best seller - man and woman amongst aprox 200 participants, and the best sales- and marketing team of 57 different teams. The task was daunting. Challenging. And great fun! 

Posing as a photographer, I could easily check the eagerness of the sellers, and the attention I got from each team. As expected, most team disregarded me immediately, and let me hang around without paying me any - or just little attention. The two other judges where given great attention, and the students tried to impress them, while with me, only a few even approached me uninvited.

And this reminds me of a story I heard some years ago:

---

The local BMW dealer just got the new 700-series on display, and had bought a demo car. One day, a man enters the shop. He is dressed in working habit - dirty trousers, big boots, a shirt with holes, scratches and staines on it. His hands where hard and rough, and his face where dark from working outside. You clearly saw that this guy had not seen a shower since early morning, and he had obviously been hard working with construction. 

The man walks over to the nice, shiny black BMW 700 series, gazing and taking it in with his eyes, noticing every detail. Liking every detail. He opens the door, and touches the cream colored leather interiors, feeling the cool leather against his own hard skin. 

After a while, he approaches the sales guy, a young man with manicured hands, a tailored suit, blue shirt and a red tie to go with it. He cannot hide the fact that he does not think this working man can ever afford the BMW 700 in his lifetime. 

The sales guy reluctantly allows for a test drive, insisting he must go with him. 

When they return to the BMW dealers shop, the working man asks the sales man if he can borrow his office phone. Yes, this was before the cellphone explotion. The sales man and the working man enters the office, and the phone is picked up. The working guy calls a number, and order two new BMW 700 series with full specifications directly on the phone, from the BMW dealer in the neighbor city. 

Imaging the looks on the face of the poor sales man. 

---

Images of the winners are found here .