John Dryden
This story happened many years ago but carries an important message for anyone today worried about a lack of qualifications. It tells about a student seeking a parttime job to help pay his way through Stanford University. At one place where he applied, the manager told him there was only one position available and that was for a typist. The young man said he’d love to take the job, but wouldn’t be able to start until the following Wednesday.
The manager agreed and the following Wednesday morning the student arrived, bright and early, and ready to work. The manager said, “I like your enthusiasm and your promptness. But I do have one question. Why couldn’t you start until today?” The young man said, “Well, I had to find a typewriter and learn how to use it.”
Perhaps it is not surprising that this young man with such self-confidence and determination would later reach the pinnacle of politics. The student’s name was Herbert Hoover.
George Bernard Shaw once said that when he was a young man, he noticed that nine out of ten things he did were failures. He didn’t want to be a failure. So, he simply did ten times more work.