A "Microsoft" story which is almost assured to be completely untrue. Nonetheless, I like stories that try to drag us away from our computers and our dumb reliance on email, mobile phones etc. So, here ya go!
Do You Really Need a Computer?
An unemployed man goes to apply for a job with
Microsoft as a janitor.
The manager there arranges for him to take an aptitude test
(Section:Floors,sweeping and cleaning).
After the test, the manager says, "You will be employed at minimum wage,
$5.15 an hour. Let me have your e-mail address, so that I can send you a
form to complete and tell you where to report for work on your first day.
Taken aback, the man protests that he has neither a computer nor an e-mail address.
To this the MS manager replies, "Well, then, that means that you
virtually don't exist and can therefore hardly expect to be
employed.Stunned, the man leaves. Not knowing where to turn and having only
$10 in his wallet, he decides to buy a 25 lb flat of tomatoes at the
supermarket. Within less than 2 hours, he sells all the tomatoes
individually at 100% profit. Repeating the process several times more that
day, he ends up with almost $100 before going to sleep that night.
And thus it dawns on him that he could quite easily make a living selling
tomatoes. Getting up early every day and going to bed late, he multiplies
his profits quickly. After a short time he acquires a cart to transport
several dozen boxes of tomatoes, only to have to trade it in again so that
he can buy a pick-up truck to support his expanding business.
By the end of the second year, he is the owner of a fleet of pick-up trucks
and manages a staff of a hundred former unemployed people, all selling
tomatoes.
Planning for the future of his wife and children, he decides to buy some
life insurance. Consulting with an insurance adviser, he picks an
insurance plan to fit his new circumstances. At the end of the telephone
conversation, the adviser asks him for his e-mail address in order to
send the final documents electronically.
When the man replies that he has no e-mail, the adviser is stunned,
"What, you don't have e-mail? How on earth have you managed to amass such
wealth without the Internet, e-mail and e-commerce? Just imagine where you
would be now, if you had been connected to the Internet from
the very start!"
After a moment of thought, the tomato millionaire replied, "Why, of
course! I would be a floor cleaner at Microsoft!"
Moral of this story:
1. The Internet, e-mail and e-commerce do not need to rule your life.
2. If you don't have e-mail, but work hard, you can still become a
millionaire.
3. Seeing that you got this story via e-mail, you're probably closer to
becoming a janitor than you are to becoming a millionaire.
4. If you do have a computer and e-mail, you have already been taken to
the cleaners by Microsoft.
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