Underestimate At Your Own Risk

A lady, in a faded gingham dress and her husband, in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the Boston train. They were to meet the President of Harvard University. When they reached the venue, by seeing their simple attire, the secretary was in a dilemma as to whether she should pave them in to meet her boss.

For hours the secretary ignored them but their determination of not-to-budge-until-meet-the-President attitude finally took them inside the The Cabin. The President obviously was not entertained by seeing them in such a simple and un-sophisticated look but gave them some time to listen to their say.

The parents had a son who had attended Harvard for 1 year. But was accidentally killed in a mishap. As as he was very happy during his short stay in Harvard, so they wanted to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on the campus.

The President was shocked. And said "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.” The lady said "Oh no, we were thinking of giving a building to Harvard in his memory". The President rolled his eyes and said "“A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have overseven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard.” The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, “Is that all itcosts to start a university? Why don’t we just start our own?”Her husband nodded.

Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away traveling to California where they established the memorial of their son and you guessed it right...it is Stanford University.

The authenticity of this story is still debated but whether fake or real, it indeed is a good story for us to consider that no matter how small or insignificant a person may look like or be in his nature, Never ever can anyone in this universe estimate the true self of simplicity. For if you do so you would end up surprising yourself more often than not.