One day, in a bank in New York, USA, there walked in a very well-dressed man.He wore a high-class suit, designer shoes on his feet, an expensive watch on his hand, and a gem-encrusted tie clip around his neck.One look told me that this man was no ordinary man.
He walked to the bank’s loan department and sat down.The staff member asked him, “Sir, what is it that you are here to do today?”
The man said, “I want to borrow some money.”
When the staff member heard this, he was a little surprised, “How much do you want to borrow?”
He said, “I just want to borrow one dollar.”
The staff member froze for a moment, “Only 1 dollar?That’s not much, is it?”
“That’s right, just borrow 1 dollar.”The man answered firmly.
The staff member smiled and said, “That’s no problem, as long as you can provide some guarantee, we can lend you money.Even if you want to borrow more, it’s no problem.”
So the man took out a bunch of documents from his bag and put them on the table.He said, “These stocks and treasury bonds are worth about half a million dollars combined, is this enough for a guarantee?”
The staff member took a look and was stunned, “That ……is way too much!Totally fine!But do you really only need to borrow $1?”
The man nodded, “Yes, just 1 dollar is enough.”
The people at the bank had to follow the process.They told the man, “The interest rate on this loan is 6% per year.After a year you pay back the $1 plus 6 cents interest and we will give you back these securities.”
The man took the dollar, said thank you, and was ready to leave.
At this point, the branch manager, who had been watching all this from the side, couldn’t help himself.He thought this was too strange – how could a man worth half a million dollars run to the bank just to borrow 1 dollar?
He hurriedly chased him out and asked, “Sir, I’m really sorry to interrupt.I am curious, you obviously have so much money, why do you have to come specially to borrow 1 dollar?”
The man smiled and said, “Actually, I didn’t come here to borrow money.I asked a few banks before, and they all said that it costs a lot of money to host your valuables.So I thought of a way to put these securities here as collateral, isn’t it just to find a safe place to store them?And your ‘rent’ here is exceptionally cheap, only six cents a year.”
The truth behind the story.
This story may sound like it’s about a smart person using ingenious ways to save money, but it actually reveals a deeper truth:Sometimes the solution to a problem isn’t to think conventionally, but to think differently, to find an opportunity that others haven’t noticed.
In this example, the man wasn’t actually short of money; what he really needed was a safe and inexpensive place to keep his securities.And while the bank’s safe deposit box was safe, it charged a lot of money.So he came up with a new idea:It’s safe and cheap to take advantage of the bank’s loan rules and put his securities in there as collateral.
This approach breaks the usual thinking.Usually people think that collateral is for borrowing money, so they always think about how to get the most money for the least amount of stuff.But this man did the opposite, exchanging the most things (worth 500,000 dollars) for the least amount of money (1 dollar), and achieved his real goal instead.
What does this story tell us?
1.Looking at a problem from a different angle often leads to a better solution.
Often times, we are stuck in our own way of thinking, thinking that we can only do things the way “everyone else does it”.But in fact, as long as you are willing to think outside the box, you can find new possibilities.
2.Being smart is not about strength, it’s about brains..
Instead of relying on physical strength or luck, that man found a way to save both money and heartache by using his brain.That is the power of wisdom.
3.Rules are dead, people are alive.
The bank’s rules are supposed to safeguard money, but the man skillfully utilized them to his advantage.This shows that there is nothing wrong with the rules themselves, it’s how they are used that counts.
4.Sometimes the simplest problems require the most unusual solutions.
Seemingly complex financial operations are in fact backed by a very simple logic: how to achieve a goal at the lowest possible cost.
Summary.
Although this story is a fable in nature, the idea it conveys is very realistic.In our lives, we also often encounter various problems and limitations.If we just follow the old ways, we may never find a breakthrough.But if we are willing to think more and look at things differently, we may be able to reach our goals in the simplest way possible, just like that man.
Remember the saying:“The key to solving problems is often hidden in places where people don’t expect it.”
