The Meaning of Life and Other Vegetables

Hello everyone (if anyone is actually reading me…?)

I recently read something that got me thinking, in Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Before I continue, I want to clarify something about this book. I DO NOT recommend it. I’m still reading it (bit by bit), and time and again I’m horrified by the content. The reason I picked it up initially – quite reluctantly – was that I recently took on a more sales-related role, and a friend of mine, whose entire career has been in/around sales, and who knows me well, said it was “a must”. Either way, despite my dislike of the book, I still see 2 reasons it makes an interesting (worthy?) read:

1. It’s a fascinating demonstration of how much human understanding has evolved since the book was first published (1937), on multiple fronts.
2. It’s a good source of thinking points about human nature (ironically, more in the writer’s attitude and implied assumptions than in his explicit arguments about human nature, that make up most of the text).

Now, back on topic…

In the book, Carnegie mentions a (at the time) famous/successful performing magician. As context, he mentions that that magician sold about 60 million tickets for his shows worldwide, over his career; and earned about $US 2 million. The way it’s stated, it’s clear Carnegie considered it a very big sum; and I assume it indeed was, in 1937, for all intents and purposes.

I got curious and checked (using plain Google search) what would be the equivalent in today’s terms. $US 44,647,917. Not bad… but also not extraordinary, if you consider what we hear in the media these days.

Next, I got curious about the average profit per ticket, in today’s terms. If you divide $44,647,917 by 60,000,000, you get about 74.5 cents net profit per ticket. Even if we allow for taxes paid, it still seems a very low figure in today’s terms, especially for a performing artist considered exemplary successful.

Considering that these days people would gladly pay north of $30 for this kind of ticket, it’s almost inconceivable – in today’s terms – that the net profit would be <$1. I think it would be expected (by both audience and organizers) to be at least a few dollars (maybe even >$10) to be worth the trouble, and mostly everyone involved would perceive such magnitude of profit fair, or at least not unreasonable.

What’s the take away?… I’m not sure! Haha. Maybe it goes to show that between 1937 and current day the relative perceived worth of live entertainment rose spectacularly…?

That’s all for today – just a random thought.

More importantly – peace to all.