Inspiring story (Stanford University-California)

A lady in a faded grey dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun suit

walked in timidly without an appointment into the Harvard University

President's outer office. The secretary could tell in a moment that such

backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn't

even deserve to be in Harvard.

"We want to see the President "the man said softly.

"He'll be busy all day "the secretary snapped.

"We'll wait" the lady replied.

For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally

become discouraged and go away. They didn't and the secretary grew

frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president.

"Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave" she said to him.

The President, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple.

The lady told him "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He

loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was

accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to

him, somewhere on campus."

The president wasn't touched....He was shocked. "Madam "he said, gruffly,

" we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died.

If we did, this place would look like a cemetery."

"Oh, no," the lady explained quickly "We don't want to erect a statue. We

thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."

The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and

homespun suit, and then exclaimed, "A building ! Do you have any earthly

idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million

dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard."

For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he

could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said

quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a university ? Why don't we just

start our own?"

Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and

bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away,

traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the University

that bears their name. Stanford University , a memorial to a son that

Harvard no longer cared about.

Most of the time we judge people by their outer appearance, which can

be misleading. And in this impression, we tend to treat people badly by

thinking they can do nothing for us. Thus we tend to lose our potential

good friends, employees or customers.

In our Life, we seldom get people with whom we want to share & grow

our thought process. But because of our inner EGO we miss them forever.

Small people talk about others,

Average people talk about things,

Great people talk about ideas.