3 ms·
This is the first guy I've come across since reading P.T. Barnum's The Art of Money Getting (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=310056 http://news.ycombinator.
by a8w9f 18y ago
This is the first guy I've come across since reading P.T. Barnum's The Art of Money Getting (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=310056 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=310056) who seems to fit the description of the "unlucky man":
The Rothschilds have another maxim: "Never have anything to
do with an unlucky man or place." That is to say, never
have anything to do with a man or place which never
succeeds, because, although a man may appear to be honest and
intelligent, yet if he tries this or that thing and always
fails, it is on account of some fault or infirmity that you
may not be able to discover but nevertheless which must exist.
The actual (?) Rothschild quote. More mercenary and off-topic:
Never have anything to do with an unlucky place, or an
unlucky man. I have seen many clever men, very clever men,
who had not shoes to their feet. I never act with them.
Their advice sounds very well, but they cannot get on
themselves; and if they cannot do good to themselves, how
can they do good to me?
- sethg 18y agoI'm reminded of the story that one of our VPs told, of a manager who had received far more applications for a certain job than he had time to look through. So he took half of the resumes that had piled up on his desk and said: "These people are unlucky. We do not want to hire unlucky people." And he threw those resumes in the trash, unread.
- Locke 18y agoIIRC, that was a scene in the British version of The Office.
- markessien 18y agoThat story almost certainly comes from an old book, I read it a long time ago.