Reason
No. 4
There was an engineer who had an exceptional gift for fixing all
things mechanical. After serving his company loyally for more than
30
years, he happily retired. Several years later, the company contacted
him regarding a seemingly impossible problem they were having with
one of their multimillion-dollar machines.
They had tried everything and everyone else to get the machine to
work but to no avail. In desperation, they called on the retired
engineer who had solved so many of their problems in the past. The
engineer reluctantly took the challenge. He spent a day studying
the
huge machine. At the end of the day, he marked a small "x"
in chalk
on a particular component of the machine and stated, "This
is where
your problem is."
The part was replaced and the machine worked perfectly again. The
company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his
service. They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges.
The engineer responded: "One chalk mark: $1; knowing where
to put it:
$49,999."
It was paid in full and the engineer retired again in peace. |
