It’s good to try new things. Just accept that sometimes things won’t work out.

Author James Altucher is famous for saying something to the effect that “90% of everything just doesn’t work out, but you have to keep trying.”

Well, I’m nothing if not open minded.

One weekend the administration of the mall where the electronics store I managed was located organized and marketed a “Sidewalk Sale” where stores would put their sale merchandise out in the mall to attract passers-by.

I had some reservations about the concept: there was nowhere to plug in TVs, and anything smaller than a TV would be easily shoplifted.

But the whole point of the sidewalk sale was to increase traffic and drive sales so I knew we had to do something.

That’s when one of my salesmen, and older gentleman suggested, “I can sit outside the door and play my accordion.”

At first I thought maybe he was on something.

Then I thought maybe he was on to something.

After all, everyone loves music, right?

You might remember that was an old Far Side cartoon that showed lineups at the gates of both heaven and hell: at one, an angel saying “Welcome to heaven. Here’s your harp.” At the other, a devil saying “Welcome to hell, here’s your accordion.”

Cartoonist Gary Larson has a very outspoken attitude towards reprints of his art. Out of respect for the artist I won’t repost the cartoon or link it (I also pay for downloaded mp3 music!), but you can find it easily if you want to.

Unsurprisingly, my salesman had that cartoon taped to the inside of his accordion’s carrying case.

So, all day Saturday, he gamely sat outside the door to our shop, and serenaded shoppers with a range of polka classics.

In retrospect, I should have hired this guy:

What lift did our weekend sales get? What was the ROI on polka?

Bupkis.

But at least we tried.