An unemployed man applied to Microsoft for a janitor’s job. After a short interview and a practical test — cleaning a floor — the Human Resources officer told him: “You’re hired. Give me your email address and I’ll send you the application form and let you know your start date.”

Embarrassed, the man explained that he had no computer and therefore no email. HR replied that they were sorry, but if he had no email he effectively “did not exist,” and since he did not exist, they could not hire him.

With only ten dollars in his pocket and no idea what to do, he walked into a market and bought a ten-kilo crate of tomatoes. Going door to door, within two hours he had doubled his money. He repeated the process a few more times, and by evening he had sixty dollars. He realized he could live this way. Every morning he left home early and worked late into the night, doubling and tripling his money each day.

Before long he bought a handcart, then traded it for a truck, and after a while he owned a transport company with many vehicles. Five years passed, and the man now owned one of the largest food-transport companies in the United States.

Thinking now of his family and his future, he decided to take out a life-insurance policy. He called an insurance company, chose a suitable plan, and as the call was ending the agent asked for his email address to send the proposal. The man said he had none. The agent was astonished: “Incredible — you have no email, and yet you built this whole empire. Imagine what you would have become if you had one!”

The man thought for a moment, then answered: “What would I have become? A janitor at Microsoft.”