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An unemployed man went to apply for a janitorial job with Microsoft. The HR manager arranged for him to take an aptitude test (Section: Floors, sweeping and cleaning). After the test, the manager said, "You did well. We'll hire you at minimum wage, $5.15 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."

Taken aback, the man protested that he had neither a computer nor an e-mail address. To this the MS manager replied, "Well, then, you virtually don't exist and can hardly expect to be employed."

Stunned, the man left. Not knowing where to turn and having only $10 in his wallet, he decided to buy a 25 lb. flat of tomatoes at the supermarket. Within less than 2 hours, he sold all the tomatoes individually at 100% profit. Repeating the process several times more that day, he ended up with almost $100 before going to sleep that night.

And 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 again so that he could buy a pick-up truck to support his expanding business. By the end of the second year, he was the owner of a fleet of pick-up trucks and managed 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. 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!"

After a moment of thought, the tomato millionaire replied, "Why, I would be a minimum-wage janitor at Microsoft!"