One day, three bankers, a Citibanker, one from HSBC and another from ABN AMRO, went for a walk. They were old buddies from school, and they were remembering the tough old days they went as students together.
For no apparent reason, they went into a zoo and passed an elephant.
Being from the same field and the same school, there is little bit of peer competition going on, so when he saw this elephant, an idea clicked the Citibanker, he said to the others "Why don't we prove who is the best among us?".
The others, of course, agreed.
Then the Citibank said "Let's make a test. Whoever can make this elephant laugh, he works for the best Bank".
They all agreed and started.
Being a pure logical strategist, the Citibanker tried to make the elephant laugh by telling jokes (In this story, the elephant do understand the language, boleh la). Of course it stayed still.
As a more practical guy, the HSBC guy tried to make funny gestures... and the elephant still stood firm.
Now, it's the ABN AMROer turn. Being the tomorrow -can- do- it guy, he whispered something to the elephant, and it laughed at him while pointing its trunk at him. The other two were astonished.
How come this ABN AMROer beat them?
So the HSBC guy said "OK, let's make another test. Let's make this elephant cry".
So there they went again.
The Citibanker told sad stories. The HSBC guy made sad gestures, and they fail again.
Then, the ABN AMROer whispered something again in the elephant's ear and it just cried, weeping and patting away.
This can't be, thought the other two.
So the Citibanker said "OK, you've won twice. If you can win this test, we will bow to you. Let's make this elephant run".
He went and barked to the elephant orders to run. Of course, it stayed still.
The HSBC guy pushes the elephant and stabs it with stake to make it run, it stayed still.
So...our ABN AMROer comes to it and whispers something again in its ear and the elephant ran and ran as fast as it could, as if it was scared to death.
The other two surrendered.
"OK, you're the best, pal. You work for a very good Bank, not even our global bankers can beat you. Do tell us your secret".
"Well" said the ABN AMROer
"The first time I made it laugh, I said "ABN AMRO is the best bank".
"When I made it cry, I told the elephant how much I get paid"..
"And when I made it run scared to death, I said to it, "Why don't you
join ABN AMRO?"