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An unemployed man applies for a job with Microsoft as a janitor. The manager arranges for him to take an aptitude test. After the test, the manager says, “You will be employed at minimum wage. Let me have your e-mail address, so that I can send you a form 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-pound flat of tomatoes at the supermarket. In less than two hours, he sells all the tomatoes individually at 100 percent profit. Repeating the process several times 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 pickup truck for his expanding business. In two years he has a fleet of pickup trucks and manages a staff of 100 formerly unemployed people, all selling tomatoes.
Planning for the future of his wife and children, he decides to buy life insurance. Consulting with an adviser, he picks an insurance plan to fit his new circumstances. At the end of the telephone conversation, the adviser asks 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 if you were 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 may be closer to becoming a janitor than to becoming a millionaire.
4. If you do have a computer and e-mail, you may already have been taken to the cleaners by Microsoft.
Good story, Dolly. Thank you.