In The Face Of Adversity

2nd Jan 2005 @ 12.04pm

An unemployed man, desperate to support his family, applies for a janitor’s job at a large firm and easily passes an aptitude test.

The HR manager tells him, “You will be hired at minimum wage of �4.95 an hour. Let me have your e-mail address so that we can get you in the loop. Our system will automatically e-mail you all the forms and advise you when to start and where to report on your first day.”

Taken aback, the man protests that he is poor and has neither a computer nor an e-mail address. To this the manager replies, “To a company like ours that means that you virtually do not exist. Without an e-mail address you can hardly expect to be employed by a high-tech firm. Good day.”

Stunned, the man leaves. Not knowing where to turn and having �10 in his wallet, he walks past a farmers’ market and sees a stand selling 25lb crates of beautiful red tomatoes. He buys a crate, carries it to a busy corner and displays the tomatoes. In less than 2 hours he sells all the tomatoes and makes 100% profit. Repeating the process several times more that day, he ends up with almost �100 and arrives home that night with several bags of groceries for his family.

During the night he decides to repeat the tomato business the next day. By the end of the week he is getting up early every day and working into the night. He multiplies his profits quickly. He buys a cart ? and then an old pick-up truck ? to transport the increasing number of crates. At the end of a year he owns three trucks, and his entire family is involved in his growing tomato business ? not to mention dozens of homeless and jobless people whom he has given work. Before long the business grosses a million pounds.

Planning for the future, he decides to consult an life-insurance advisor, who asks him for his e-mail address in order to send the final documents electronically. When the man replies that he doesn’t have time to mess with a computer and has no e-mail address, the insurance man is stunned. ?What, you don’t have e-mail? No computer? No Internet? Just think where you would be today if you’d had all of that five years ago!”

“Ha!” snorts the man. “If I’d had e-mail five years ago I would be sweeping floors at Microsoft and making �4.95 an hour.”

posted by Alison Esse
filed under Stories