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Our Definition of Success
A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun
threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly
without an appointment into the outer office of the President of Harvard
University. 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 Cambridge. She frowned. "We want to see the president,"
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, even though it was a chore she always regretted
to do. "Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes, they'll
leave," she told him. And he sighed in exasperation and nodded.
Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with
them, but he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his
outer office. The president, stern-faced with dignity, strutted toward the
couple. The lady told him, "We had a son that attended Harvard for one
year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was
accidentally killed. And 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, 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 plant at Harvard." For a moment
the lady was silent. The president was pleased. He could get rid of them
now. And 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.
And Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to Palo Alto,
California, where they established the University that bears their name, a
memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.
NOTE: It has come to our
attention that this rendition of the founding of Stanford University may be
an urban legend. Nonetheless,
it makes our point and is a very nice story.
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