A smart young man from a small town applied for a job at a large department store in the city. It was the largest department store in the world where you could find everything.

The manager asked the young man:

–       Have you ever had a job?

–       Yes, I had a few jobs in my small town.

The manager liked the straightforward manner of the man and said:

–       You can start tomorrow. Later in the day I’ll drop by to see how you’ve done.

It was a long, hard day of work for the young man. At 5:30pm the manager came by to check on the productivity of his new employee, and asked:

–       How many customers did you take care of today?

–       One!

–       Only one? Most of my salespeople make 30 to 40 sales per day. How much was your sale?

–       Two and half million dollars.

–       HOW DID YOU DO THAT?

–       Well, a customer came in and I sold him a small fishhook, a medium size fishhook and finally a big one. After that I sold him light fishing line, medium fishing line and then heavy duty fishing line for big fish. I asked him where he was going to fish, and he told me he was going deep-sea fishing. I asked if he needed a boat, and then took him to the Boat Showroom and sold him a top of the line speedboat.

–       When I told him that a regular car wouldn’t be able to pull the boat and trailer, I took him to the Automotive department and sold him a four wheel drive truck.

Puzzled, the manager asked:

–       Let me get this right, you sold all that to a customer who came in looking for a small fishhook?

–       No, sir. He came in looking for an aspirin for his wife’s PMS, and I said: “Since your weekend is already ruined, why not go fishing?”

The poor will remain poor until they discover that thinking is free of charge.