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A cautionary tale about Literacy:
A guy, Joe, was down on his luck. He hadn't eaten in over a day. He was wandering dejectedly, and when he passed the Baptist church he saw the pastor outside and ask if there was any work he could do for some food. The pastor said, "We are hiring a new janitor if you want job."
Joe said great and took an application.
The problem was Joe couldn't read. When he told this to the pastor the pastor said, "I'm sorry, but with all the cleaning chemicals and so on we use, you would have to be able to read the safety precautions. I can't hire you, but we just finished a food drive and we have a bag of apples left. You can have them to eat if you want."
Joe took the apples, but what he really wanted was a cup of coffee and a cheeseburger.
He ate an apple, and stood on the corner selling the rest of them for 50 cents a piece. When they were gone he got his cup of coffee and a cheeseburger and had money left over.
The next day he used the money to buy another bag of apples, sold them for enough money to buy two bags the next day.
Pretty soon, Joe had enough money to buy a cart and started selling all kinds of fruit. He had so much money he opened a bank account.
Eventually Joe bought a truck and started wholesaling fruit to local stores.
He took his profits to the bank every Friday. The bank manager noticed him coming in every Friday and befriended this amazingly entrepreneurial man.
Years went by. Joe's business grew to the point where he had bought out the fruit wholesaler and became a millionaire.
When it was time to retire and he took his last deposit to the bank, the bank manager waved him into his office.
"Joe, you have made yourself a millionaire starting with nothing but a bag of apples. And you cannot read nor write. That is an amazing accomplishment."
"Why, thank you sir," Joe replied.
"But Joe, do you have any idea where you would be today if you could read and write?"
"Yes," said Joe. "I'd be the janitor down at the Baptist church."
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