What Can We Learn From Americans Buying Chinese Portable Toilets for USD61.96?

Americans are now buying Chinese portable toilets to be used as fruit baskets!

Yes! The portable toilet my parents’ used as kids are now being sold as a Chinese traditional fruit basket for USD61.96 after seeing this advertisement of 

“1960s Chinese traditional fruit basket” that could be used as a fancy “table decoration” to store fresh produce, ice or wine.”

While many people are laughing at the gullible foreigners who bought it, what they don’t realize is we make such mistakes from time to time as well. 

How often do you create a new belief simply because of something you read online or heard from a friend without making more research about it? 

For years, advertisers have been doing this to us. 

Did you know?

- Milo, the healthy drink that we were told since we were young, is in fact, made up of 40% sugar. How healthy is that? 

- Cigarettes were failed products, until the 1950s when they managed to hire doctors to endorse the product using slogans such as “More doctors smoke camels” and using A-List Celebrities and Professional Athletes to endorse their products. 

- Pandora, the International Jewelry brand that started in Denmark was an idea a couple got after traveling in the streets of Thailand. Till today, all pieces of jewelry from Pandora are made in Thailand, branded in Denmark, and sold to the world at a premium as a European brand. 

We have all bought some stories and firmed up new beliefs because we read or saw something. So, who’s a fault is it? Is it the marketers’ fault or is it our fault? 

Well… At the end of the day, we as consumers buy and consume what we believe offers value. And the marketers’ job is to create a value perception of how useful a product is to us. Because the higher the perceived value, the higher the price we are willing to pay. 

The problem is… This perception lies not only in portable Chinese toilets and the things we buy daily. And when I use the word buy, I’m looking at beyond the things we buy. I’m referring to thoughts of the mind. 

Have you ever questioned your definition of success in life, career, business, wealth, and relationships? 

Is that definition of success a reality? Or was it a perception the society and your family have implanted in you? 

The inconvenient truth is… There is no reality, only perception. Identify the filter through which you view the world. Practice independent thinking and stop believing blindly in whatever you read on social media. Do thorough research about everything and monitor your thoughts carefully. 

Your thoughts create your perception. Your perception creates your reality. Alter your thoughts and you’ll alter your reality.