The Tomato story: How to free the Superman tied by your neck-tie

A Jobless man once applied for the position of an 'office boy' at a firm you might know about. The HR manager interviewed him testing his suitability for the job.

'You are employed', said the manager after weighing his abilities enough. Give me your e-mail address and I'll send you the documents to fill in and also the date when you may join.

The man replied 'Thank you Sir, but, I don't have a computer, nor an email id'.

'I'm sorry', commanded the HR manager and continued rationalizing. 'If you don't have an email, that simply means you do not exist. And one who doesn't exist, cannot have the job.' Having better command of the corporate language and reasoning, the sentences could be constructed by the manager in absolute coherence. That particular sentence would never have reached the intellect of the office boy, but then that is how the literates are; always pleasing their ownselves with their mental masturbation.

The man left the office bathed in AC, with no hope towards the roads bathed in sunlight. He did not know what to do, but he did have $10 in his pocket. He then decided to go to the supermarket and buy 10Kg tomatoes. He then sold the tomatoes in a door to door rounds. In less than two hours, he succeeded to double his capital. He repeated the operation three times, and returned home with $60.

The man realized that he could survive this way, and started to go everyday, earlier. And return, late. For his life was not awaiting him after his day job, but was rather dependent on it. He liked the job, for it fed him. The food tasted better, as the job made him hungry. He and his job were one happy family. With happiness, his money multiplied too.

Shortly, he bought a cart, then a truck, and then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles.

5 years later, everybody knew the man and his humble beginnings. The quality of the tomatoes he traded never declined, for they bore a very close resemblance to the color of the fluid that gave birth to his sweat, which evaporated before even they touched the tar of the roads.

It now was time he invested and insured, like all wise men with money and future. Future is the only commonality between a wise man and a less-wiser man, for the future is equally uncertain. But the wise men plan for the probablities, and that makes all the difference.

He called an insurance agent, and chose a lareg-sum protection plan.
When the conversation was midway the broker asked him his email id.
The man replied,'I don't have an email id', again. Taking him to the start of the circle, only this time the path he walked around the circumference made him say that without a 'sorry' in his sentence.

The broker was curious enough and asked, 'You don't have an email, and yet have succeeded to build an empire this big? Imagine what could you have become if you had taken one small step and learnt to use e-mail?'

The man thought for a while and replied, 'Yes, I'd have been an office boy at a firm you might know'.

 

Take-aways:

• If you know you have the skills, success is more about choosing what not-to-do.
• Keep a not-to-do list in your journal
• Choose the 'Road less travelled by, and that will make all the difference.'

Give-aways:

• Share this story to your heart's content. Copy / paste / alter / modify / make-bad / make-good / make you version / just-spread!