A lady in a faded grey dress and her husband, dressed in a home-spun 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 Eliot "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 Eliot, 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,
travelling 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..

Remember
Petty people talk about themselves

Small people talk about others

Average people talk about things

Great people talk about ideas
But --------- The greatest, act in silence...