A little can say a lot

One day, about 250 years ago, a young man arrived at the home of Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia. He was a hat-maker and wanted Franklin, who ran a printing business at the time, to make a sign for his new shop. The visitor had a text with him that read: "John Thompson, hatter, makes and sells hats for ready money." Below the text, he had drawn the image of a hat.

Franklin felt that the word "hatter" before "makes and sells hats" was unnecessary, so he removed it. After that, he took out "makes" because he said customers would see that this is what was going on in the shop. Then, "sells" was struck out since people would hardly expect to get them for free. Next, "ready money" was taken out as a new business was not going to give credit to unknown customers. Finally, the word "hats" was removed as one was drawn on the page.

When Franklin was finished, the sign consisted of the figure of a hat with the words "John Thompson" below it. The business became a great success.