Ezra and Thomas joined a company together a few months after their graduation from university.
After a few years of work, their manager promoted Ezra to a position of Senior Sales Manager, but Thomas remained in his entry level Junior Sales Officer position.
Thomas developed a sense of jealousy and disgruntlement but continued working anyway.
One day Thomas felt that he could not work with Ezra anymore. He wrote his resignation letter, but before he submitted it to the Manager, he complained that the Management did not value hard working staff, but only promoted only the favored!
The Manager knew that Ezra worked very hard for the years he had spent at the company and to help Thomas, the Manager gave Thomas a task.
“Go and find out if anyone is selling watermelons in town”
Thomas returned and said, “yes there is someone!”
The Manager asked, “how much per kg?” Thomas droves back to town to ask and then returned to inform the Manager; “they are Rs.13.50 per kg!”
The Manager told Thomas, ” Now I will give Ezra the same task that I gave you”.
So, the Manager said to Ezra, in the presence of Thomas; “Go and find out if anyone is selling watermelons in town”
Ezra went to find out and, on his return, he said:
“Manager, there is only one person selling watermelons in the whole town. The cost is Rs.49.00 each watermelon and Rs.32,50 for half a melon. He sells them at Rs.13.50 per kg. He has in his stock 93 melons, each one weighing about 7kg. He has a farm and can supply us with melons for the next 4 months at a total of 102 melons per day at Rs.27.00 per melon; this includes delivery.
The melons appear fresh and of good quality, and they taste better than the ones we sold last year.
He has his own slicing machine and is willing to slice for us free of charge.
We need to strike a deal with him before 10 a.m. tomorrow and we will be sure of beating last year’s profits in melons by Rs. 223,000.00. This will contribute positively to our overall performance as it will add a minimum of 3.78% to our current overall sales target.
I have put this information down in writing and it is available on a spreadsheet. Please let me know if you need it as I can send it to you in five minutes.”
Thomas was very impressed and realized the difference between himself and Ezra. He decided not to resign but to learn from Ezra.
Let this story help us keep in mind the importance of going an extra mile in all our endeavors.
You won’t be rewarded for doing what you’re meant to do,
You get paid for that! You’re only rewarded for going an extra mile; performing beyond expectations.
It’s ok to get a small salary. What’s not ok is to be working for a small salary, but learn nothing from the job, that you can use to stand on your own. Sometimes what they give you is not a salary, but an allowance for you to sustain yourself while you are learning what you need to start your own thing. The problem comes when you fail to graduate such that you end up starting to complain about the allowance.
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