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An informal, stream-of-consciousness reflection on business ideas, events and issues in modern business, modern life and with some specifics to the web-software industry by Paul Tomori, Internet Entrepreneur

The Best Mulligatawny Soup In The World Nothing Beats Quality In The Long Run By Paul Tomori Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 17:18:13 (EDT) I LOVE East Indian food. When I was a wee boy, my dear mother took me home to the family farm in Dalkeith Scotland every other year or so until I was about 15. How I loved those trips to the old country! My Grandad would make eggs in a cup each day for breakfast from the freshest possible eggs that I myself had collected from the henhouse just 10 paces from the front door of the farmhouse. He would then collect a box of veggies from a heavily guarded garden (i.e. he kept some shotguns behind the curtains of the window that overlooked the yard to make examples of any encroaching blackbirds) and he would start on the day's soup. We were all well-fed and never worried about pesticides or pollution caused by delivery trucks. Self-sufficiency was integral to the whole experience. Purity was a given. In the afternoons, my Granny Etta would begin to fuss over preparations for the evening meal. I remember her wrapping herself in a white apron and insistently tenderizing some meat for a stew. The wonderful sauces she came up with made me long for them forever once we returned home to Canada. And, I will never forget the loud burst of laughter when I announced to my very Canadian father that I wanted him to make me some "Scottish food... you know: CURRY!" The politics of colonialism was very lost on my youthful understanding of the world. What I didn't know was that my relatives had all spent many years running tea plantations in India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and that they had come to co-mingle the culinary styles of two very diverse cultures on their return to the UK. All I knew was: "damn that curry stuff is good!" In recent years, my wife won me over (in part) by her exceptional talents in the kitchen. When she promised me that she made the best Mulligatawny Soup in the world, I was dubious of the claim. However, when I had my first taste, I was floored. It really was better and easily as authentic-tasting as any that I had tasted in my world travels. I should not have doubted her own "Scottish" roots. One could easily see her soup canned and sold in droves from Zehrs stores across the country, though it might compromise the purity of the experience. Nothing compares to fresh cut coriander dropped in at the last minute just before serving. At the end of the day, nothing at all compares with quality, whether you're talking soup, a great song, an inspiring book or a software application that makes your business hum. In the long run, all the fluff and boastful assertions of some company or supplier will wither in the face of quality. Which is why it is 100% pointless and utterly fruitless to pursue some sort of magic bullet for success. Do you want sustained revenues for your business? Do you want a solid base on which to grow? Slow down. Embrace the constraint of high quality. Then make its pursuit your unrelenting action plan. Return To Blog Index