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18-02-2021

C Stories - A lesson in humility
 

Some time ago I was working with EY (then Ernst & Young) in London. One of our client’s specialized in office machines and for more than two months we were working at their head office in the suburbs of London. During one of our long days at the client’s premises, the project team had a short break for a quick snack around nine o’clock at night. The project team consisted of the partner in charge, myself as the supervisor and three consultants.
Just below the window of our office we noticed a shiny, new Ferrari and we were all commenting about the great car. Our discussion went like this:
“I am wondering who this great car belongs to” asked one of the team members
‘Probably one of the directors, they are still working”.
Suddenly our conversation was interrupted as a member of the cleaning team entered the room and started emptying the waste paper baskets. Soon, he realised that we were looking at the Ferrari.
“Do you like the car?”, he asked
“Yes of course”, I replied
“I just bought it today. I want to surprise my girlfriend who is flying back from Spain tonight’, he replied
“How can you afford this car, it is very expensive”, replied one of the consultants
“Well, I am the owner of the company that offers cleaning services not only for this company, but almost all of the companies in this office and industrial area. I make a good living!”, he replied
As you can imagine all of us where very surprised. We were “yuppies” (young and highly paid professionals) working with the leading companies in the UK and yet we could only dream of the car bought by this humble businessman.
This was an unforgettable lesson in humility which I remember to this day.

George Charalambides

 
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