Story quoted by Zig Ziglar in his book, "Top Performance - How to Develop Excellence in Yourself and Others."

A very wealthy Texan had a daughter of marriageable age, and he determined to give her a "coming out" party. This simply meant that he was going to invite all the eligible bachelors in the area over to his home so that he could have a good look at them - you sales folks would call that "group prospecting". His reason was obvious: he wanted the very best for his daughter.

When all the eligible men arrived from a hundred-mile radius of his two-hundred-thousand-acre ranch (with scores of producing fully oil wells and thousands of head of cattle), he called them all out by the Olympic-size swimming pool, which he had the amazing foresight of stocking with water moccasins, alligators, and other vicious beasts. He told the young men that the first one who jumped into the pool and swam the length would be given his choice of three things: one million dollars in cash, ten thousand acres of his best land, or the hand of his beautiful daughter in marriage. He even pointed out that his daughter was his only heir and that when he and his wife passed on, all of this big spread would belong to her and to the man who became her husband.

No sooner were the words spoken than there was a loud splash at one end of the pool, followed almost immediately by the emergence of a dripping wet young man from the other end of the pool. He had set a world's record that would never be approached, much less broken, in swimming the length of that pool.

As the crowd of young men and the girl's father rushed down to the other end of the pool to congratulate the young man, he stood there in eager anticipation. The host excitedly said, "Well, son, you've got your choice. Do you want the million in cash?" The young man responded, "No, sir!" Then the host asked, "Do you want the ten thousand acres of my best land?" The young man responded, "No, sir!" Finally the host said, "Then I guess you want the hand of my beautiful daughter in marriage!" To this the young man replied, "No, sir!"

Somewhat puzzled and a little frustrated, the host demanded, "Well, son, what do you want?" The young man responded, "What I want is to know the name of the dude that pushed me into the swimming pool!"

Story quoted by Zig Ziglar in his book, "Top Performance - How to Develop Excellence in Yourself and Others."