12 Lessons From the Hood
The Tomato Man
A man that had been searching and looking for a job for some time with no success. We shall call him the Tomato Man. One day he was invited to an interview for an opening at some big corporate that was hiring at the time.
On the morning of the interview the Tomato Man got himself ready pretty early, ensuring not to be late for the all-important interview that could well be the defining moment of his life.
Towards the end of that interview, the Human Resources Manager who was presiding over the interview said something to this effect, “You have interviewed well. We are pleased to inform you that you will be among the candidates that will continue in the process of screening for us to find the best candidate to fill the role that we are hiring for.” At this stage, Mr. Tomato Man was clearly ecstatic at the prospect and fancied his chances well.
Then suddenly, his hopes for the job were blown away in an instant when the HR Manager asked him for his email address. The company had to email him some forms that needed to be completed in preparation for the second round of the interview process. Tomato Man didn’t have an email address. The HR Manager then dismissed him, saying that they did not have any option but to discontinue the process as every candidate needed to have an email address.
As you can imagine, Tomato Man was so distraught and felt dejected as he walked back home.
Then a thought crossed his mind. A light bulb went on in his mind, that would change the course of his life from then on. He remembered that he had a $10 bill in his pocket. That was all there was between him and poverty. He remembered that people in his neighbourhood used to buy their fresh tomatoes some distance
from where they lived. So, he decided to use the $10 that he had to buy a box of tomatoes that he resold in smaller quantities at a street corner close to where he lived.
Fortunately for him, all of the tomatoes that he bought got sold. He made $15 at the end of the day, a cool $5 profit. Encouraged by this result, he decided to do it again the next day and made another $5 profit. Now he had a total of $10 in profit
plus the $10 that he started with, making a total of $20.
On the third day, he was able to buy two boxes of tomatoes all of which were sold for a profit. Tomato Man continued this, making profit from the sale of the tomatoes daily.
Then it occurred to him that he could be missing the people who did not use the street that he sold from. So, he asked someone else to stand at the next street and sell tomatoes on his behalf for a small fee. Eventually, Tomato Man had several people selling Tomato from different street corners for him until he became a very successful vegetable supplier with a chain of stores across the country where he lived.
Some years later, at a TV interview during which Tomato Man talked about his road to success, the TV interviewer asked Tomato man for his email address so that they could show it to viewers who may have been watching the inspiring story. Guess what Tomato Man’s response was? I do not have an email address. This shocked the TV interviewer who asked how it is that such a successful business person would have no email.
Tomato Man answered with a smile on his face. “You see, if I had an email address, I would have been a Janitor at…” and he mentioned the name of the company that he had gone to interview at for the job of a Janitor and got thrown away for not having an email address.
Lesson:
There is always another way. Do not stay stuck, staring hard at the closed door in front of you. You may miss the open door staring at you.

Claude Phiri has written five books. He is a global training consultant and current president of the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa. A member of the Zambia Institute of Human Resource Management, Mr. Phiri has taught several MBA modules at Regenesys Business School on a part-time basis and is founder and Executive Director of Mapalo Management Services, South Africa.
+27-71-408-6585; claude@mapalo.co.za
www.claudephiri.com; www.claudephiri.co.za; www.mapalo.co.za
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