Bruce Barton, one of the original partners in the legendary advertising

agency of Batten, Barton, Durstine, & Osborne, once told the following

story:

“One day on my first job as a young man in New York, a matter came up about which I happened to have the facts. My boss disagreed, and though I put up a good argument, he somewhat abruptly overruled me.

“I was living those days in a room in the 23rd Street Y.M.C.A. in New York for which I paid seven dollars a week. His home was a fair-sized mansion requiring 10 servants. The morning after our argument, the telephone rang while I was dressing, and I wondered who in New York could be after me so early.

“To my amazement it was the boss. Said he: ‘I have been thinking about our discussion of yesterday, and I just want you to know you were right and I was wrong.’

“The boss with an income of $100,000 a year, calling a $40-a-week youngster to say, ‘I was wrong!’ He had been 100 percent with me; after that he was the biggest man in town.”

Author unknown. If anyone has a proprietary interest in this story please authenticate and I will be happy to credit, or remove, as the circumstances dictate.

Thanks to WITandWISDOM(tm) – August 24, 2000 subscribe-wit-wisdom@xc.org