When Microsoft Don't Employ You

An unemployed man went to apply for a job with Microsoft, as a

An unemployed man went to apply for a job with Microsoft, as a
janitor. The manager there arranged for him to take an aptitude test.
After the test, the manager said, 'You will be employed as a janitor
at minimum wage, $5.15 an hour.
Let me have your e-mail address, so that I can send you a form to
complete to 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 by Microsoft.'

Stunned, the man left. Not knowing where to turn and having only
$10.00 in his wallet, he bought a 25 lb flat of tomatoes at the
supermarket and, in less than two hours, he sold all the tomatoes,
individually, at 100% profit.

Repeating the process several times more that day, he ended with
almost $100, before going to sleep that night. Thus it dawned on him
that he could quite easily make a living selling tomatoes.

Getting up early every day and going to bed late, he multiplied his
profits quickly. After a short time he acquired a cart to transport
several dozen boxes of tomatoes, only to have to trade it in so that
he could buy a pickup truck, to support his expanding business.

By the end of the second year, he was the owner of a fleet of pickup
trucks and was managing a staff of a hundred former unemployed
people, all selling tomatoes.

Planning for the future of his wife and children, he decided to buy
some life insurance. Consulting with an insurance adviser, he picked
an insurance plan to fit his new circumstances. At the end of the
telephone conversation, the adviser asked him for his e-mail address
in order to send the final documents electronically.

When the man replied that he had no e-mail, the adviser was 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!'

'Well,' replied the tomato millionaire, 'I would be a janitor at
Microsoft!'

By definition, a fable must have a moral. This one has four:

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. Since 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.