There was an engineer who had an
exceptional gift for fixing all things mechanical. After serving his company loyally for
over 30 years, he happily retired.
Several years later the company contacted
him regarding a seemingly impossible problem they were having with one of their
multimillion dollar machines. They had tried everything and everyone else to get the
machine to work but to no avail. In desperation, they called on the retired engineer who
had solved so many of their problems in the past.
The engineer reluctantly took the
challenge. He spent a day studying the huge machine. At the end of the day, he marked a
small "x" in chalk on a particular component of the machine and stated,
"This is where your problem is."
The part was replaced and the machine
worked perfectly again. The company received a bill for $50,000 from the engineer for his
service. They demanded an itemized accounting of his charges.
