A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new Tesla Roadster convertible advanced out of the dust cloud towards him, blazing down the dirt road. The driver, a young man in a $5,000 Broni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL silk tie skidded to a stop and stared out at the sheep for a few moments. He leaned out the window and asked the shepherd… “If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?”
The shepherd looked at the man for a few moments and then looked at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answered “Sure”.
The guy parked his car, whipped out his computer tablet, created a hot spot with his Iphone and connected to the internet. He surfed to a NASA page on the internet where he called up a live GPS satellite navigation system, scanned the area, and then opened up a database and an Excel spreadsheet with complex formulas. He sent and received several emails and created a 43 page PowerPoint presentation with graphs and charts in full color.
After nearly 45 minutes had passed, he turns to the shepherd and confidently proclaims, “You have exactly 1,782 sheep.”
The shepherd looked at him and then answered, “That is correct; take one of the sheep.”
He watches the young man carefully select one of the animals and bundle it into the rear seat of his convertible. As he prepared to leave, the shepherd raised his hand to stop him, and said, “If I can tell you exactly what your profession is will you give me back my animal?”,
The young man thought about that only briefly and then said, “OK, why not!”
Without missing a beat the shepherd stated, “You are a consultant.”
Surprised at the shepherd’s quick reply, the young man said “Yeah, you are right, I am a consultant! How in the world did you figure that out so fast?
“Easy”, said the shepherd. “You turned up here although nobody called you. You want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked, and you don’t know crap about my business…… Now give me back my dog.”