After returning from his first voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus was invited to a dinner with Spanish nobles. Some of the guests began to downplay his achievement, saying that discovering the New World was not such a great feat and that anyone could have done it.

Columbus listened quietly, then asked for an egg to be brought to the table. He challenged the guests:

"Gentlemen, I will lay a wager with any of you that you will not make this egg stand on its end — naked and without anything at all."

Everyone tried. They balanced the egg, spun it, and tried every trick they could think of, but the egg always rolled over.

When the egg came back to Columbus, he gently tapped the bottom of the egg on the table, slightly cracking and flattening the shell. The egg then stood upright on its own.

Columbus looked at the group and said:

"You see? Once you know how, it’s easy. After the deed is done, everybody knows how to do it."