Saturday, August 08, 2009

From the archives - Thinking outside the box

A friend send this story to me back in 2001:

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A company was hiring new staff. One question in the written exam was:

You are driving your car in a wild stormy night. You pass by a bus station, and you see three people waiting for the bus: An old lady who looks as if she is about to die. A doctor who had once saved your life. A man/woman you have been dreaming to be with. You can only take one passenger in your car.

Which one will you choose? Please explain your answer. Think about it before you continue reading. This must be some kind of personality test. Every answer has its reasoning.

You could pick up the old lady. She is going to die, and thus you should save her first. You could take the doctor, because he once saved your life. This will be the perfect chance to pay him back. However, you could always pay the doctor back in the future, but you may never be able to find the perfect lover once you pass this chance.

How would you answer?


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Now think for a bit before reading any more.

How would you answer this?



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The candidate who was eventually hired (out of 200 applicants) did not have to explain his answer. WHAT DID HE SAY? He simply answered: "Give the car key to the doctor. Let him take the old lady to the hospital. I will stay and wait for the bus with the man/woman of my dreams."

Sometimes, we would gain more if we were able to give up our stubborn limitations.

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3 comments:

Unknown said...

Ok, I stink at this outside the box stuff, but when I read the "doctor who once saved my life", I thought immediately of Jesus, the Divine Physician, so I would have taken him-He has saved my life on numerous occasions after all. (As you can see it's all about me :) )
The actual answer to this which you have given here is much better and a whole lot less selfish than mine.
Just thought I'd add my 2 cents to this and say hi at the same time.

Happy Elf Mom (Christine) said...

I would have just kept going and not picked anybody up because I'm selfish like that. :P

Henry Cate said...

I am afraid I have driving by similar situations too many times, busy with my own thoughts and not paying attention.