A construction company was commissioned to build a really grand five star hotel in New York. They decided to use their best engineer, a founding partner with the firm, Jim O’Reilly (he was originally from Cavan, Ireland). The managing partner, Chuck Houlihan (of Irish ancestry) was a strong business man but a little hard headed.
In building the hotel, Jim was at the core of engineering design and construction until business differences separated Jim and Chuck. Jim left the company.
The hotel was completed and all went well and opening with a grand celebration.
Then one day, there was a problem with the air conditioning. This became a big problem and all the expertise with the company couldn’t pin point the cause. Chuck was forced to call Jim to ask him back to check it out, whatever the cost. Chuck asked his engineers to follow Jim everywhere in finding the problem.
Jim toured the hotel checking the system at different points, asking questions and moving on. Then after about two hours he stopped. He had found it. Taking our a piece of chalk marked an X on a piece of equipment. The other engineers saw instantly what we meant.
Jim sent in a bill for $50,000 dollars to Chuck. Chuck nearly had a heart attack and smartly replied to Jim for his billed to be itemised.
Jim responded:
$1 for the chalk, $49,999 for knowing where to put it
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