Talking about consultants, reminds me of an anecdote that I came across.
A consultant from the consulting firm Arthur Andersen was driving past the
countryside in his sparkling BMW when he spotted a farmer grazing his
sheep. He stops and parks his car by the side of the road and walks up to
the farmer. He tells the farmer 'if I can tell you how many sheep you have,
will you give me one of your sheep?'
The farmer is taken by surprise with this unexpected offer but nods his
head in agreement. The consultant walks back to his car, brings out his
laptop and starts working on it. After a few minutes he informs the farmer
that he has 1,652 sheep. The farmer is awestruck. He nods his head in
approval and tells the visitor to pick up a sheep of his choice.
The visitor picks up an animal, carries it under his arms and starts
walking back to the car, when he is interrupted by the farmer. 'Hey, wait a
minute' calls out the farmer,'if I can guess your profession will you give
me back my sheep?' The visitor nods his head in agreement fully confident
that the farmer would never win. The farmer says ' you work as a
consultant'. This time the visitor's jaw drops. He asks the farmer what
made him guess correctly. To which the farmer replied ' you came here
without being invited, you made me an offer which I did not ask for, and
informed me something which was already known to me and more importantly
you cannot make out the difference between a sheep and a dog. Now may I get
my dog back please?'
Regards,
Marshall
*A tomcat on heat was disturbing the neighbourhood with a lot of noise and
destruction of roof tiles, so he was summoned by the people of the
neighbourhood and warned to stop the nuisance but to no avail. In
desperation the good folks castrated the tomcat and the nuisance stopped -
but only for a short period. Very soon, the tomcat was at it again but now
the disturbance had quadrupled because our tomcat was accompanied by a
number of other tomcats, including from the surrounding areas. Puzzled, the
neighbourhood folks summoned the tomcat and asked for an explanation. No
problem, it replied, I know how to do it but am myself totally incapable of
doing it. So, I now dispense good advice, I have become a successful
consultant.*
*Bernardo de Sousa
*
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