The Manager of a Large Corporation Had a Heart Attack

A manager from a major corporation suffered a heart attack, and his doctor advised him to spend a few weeks on a farm to relax and recover.

After only a couple of days on the farm, boredom hit him hard, so he asked the farmer if there was any work he could do. The farmer told him to clean out all the cow manure. He expected the city man—who had spent his whole life behind a desk—to take at least a week to finish. To his surprise, the manager completed the entire job in just one day.

The following day, the farmer assigned him an even tougher task: to cut the heads off 500 chickens. Certain the manager would fail this time, the farmer was once again shocked when the job was done by the end of the day.

On the third morning, with most heavy tasks already finished, the farmer gave him something simple: divide a bag of potatoes into two boxes—one for small potatoes and one for large ones.

By the end of the day, the farmer found the manager sitting in front of the same potato bag, both boxes still empty.

Puzzled, the farmer asked,

“How did you handle such difficult tasks the first two days, but now you can’t finish this simple one?”

The manager replied:

“Look, my whole life I’ve been cutting heads and dealing with crap… but now you want me to make decisions!”

The Three Envelopes

A new manager spent a week training with the manager he was replacing. On the last day, the departing manager said:

“I’ve left three numbered envelopes in the desk drawer. Open one whenever you face a crisis you can’t solve.”

Three months later, disaster struck—major problems, everything falling apart. Feeling overwhelmed, he remembered the envelopes and opened the first one.

Inside was a note:

“Blame your predecessor!”

He followed the advice and avoided trouble.

Six months later, sales dropped and serious product issues appeared. He opened the second envelope.

It read:

“Reorganize!”

He reorganized the company, and things quickly improved.

Three months after that, another crisis hit. The manager opened the third envelope.

Inside was a simple message:

“Prepare three envelopes…”