Michael.
Senior Member
- Location
- UK (Surrey)
The Tomato Millionaire
Rodney goes to apply for a job with Microsoft as a cleaner.
The manager there arranges for him to take an aptitude test (Floors, sweeping and cleaning).
After the test, the manager says, "You will be employed at the minimum wage which currently is $9.76 (£6.31) 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."
Rodney replies that he has neither a computer nor an e-mail address.
To this the manager replies, "Well, then, that means that you virtually don't exist and can therefore hardly expect to be employed."
Not knowing where to turn and having only $15.47 (£10 ) in his wallet, Rodney purchases a large box of tomatoes at the market.
Within less than 2 hours, he sells all the tomatoes to his neighbours at 100% profit.
Repeating the process several times more that day, he ends up with almost 154.72 (£100) before going to sleep that night.
Suddenly 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 pickup 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 email address in order to send the final documents electronically.
Rodney 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,
Emails 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, Rodney replied -
"Why, of course! I would be a 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 cleaner 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.
.
