Once
there was a very poor family. The mother
and father were poor and so were their children. Even their maids, cook and butler were
poor. When they sat down to a simple
dinner of, say, prime rib, baked potatoes and Caesar salad, they had to be
careful not to overeat because the leftovers would be needed for the next day’s
lunch. Their handmade clothes were sewn
of silk, not the velvet that they would have preferred. They had a carriage and a coachman, of course,
but the carriage was last year’s model.
Life was very unkind, indeed—how long could they continue this
hardscrabble existence? Would the poor
man have to get a job?
One
day an itinerant lottery ticket salesman knocked on the door of their
castle. The poor man didn’t want to buy
any tickets at first because he was short on cash, but the salesman had a
strong feeling he had the winning ticket with him. The poor man (hereafter known as P. M.) knew
this because the salesman said, “I have a strong feeling I have the winning
ticket with me. If you buy this $1.00
ticket, you could win a gazillion dollars.
Even after taxes, you’d probably have half a gazillion and that should
last you the rest of your life!” After
much thought, P. M. sent one of his poor servants to fetch him a dollar from
under his mattress and he bought the ticket.
“Thank heavens,” P. M. thought, “In a few days all my financial problems
will be solved.”
Soon
the day of the drawing of the lottery numbers arrived. P. M. and his wife sat in their matching pure
leather recliners, which they had gotten on sale from La-Z-Boy, and turned on
their large sized flat screen HDTV (also last year’s model). They watched intently as the numbers were
drawn and would you believe-- they lost!
His
very first thought was to sue the salesman who obviously sold him a defective
ticket. As they sat in front of the TV,
many commercials came on. Most of them
were by lawyers who said things like, “Did you ever take this medicine and break
a fingernail? You may be entitled to
money!” and “Did you ever touch this
stuff and now you have a slight headache?
We can get you cash!”
The
ads sounded very sincere—and lucrative! P. M. got on his computer (last year’s, too)
and looked for attorneys. He called the
law firm of Dewey, Cheatham and Howe (who used to handle Johnny Carson’s legal
work) and made an appointment. They sued
every pharmaceutical company and manufacturer of possibly dangerous products
known to man.
True, most of their cases
were dismissed, but enough made it to trials which they won to get P.M. his
half a gazillion dollars and more! He
never did have to get a job or eat day old prime rib again. He gave his household staff got a big raise and
everyone lived happily ever after.
Never let
anyone convince you that failure is not an option because it most certainly
is----fishducky
