It is all one to me if a man comes from Sing Sing Prison or Harvard. We hire a man, not his history.

The remark frames hiring as a forward-looking judgment about capability rather than pedigree. By juxtaposing Sing Sing (a notorious New York prison) with Harvard (an emblem of elite education), Forbes collapses conventional status markers and argues that a person’s past—whether stigmatized or privileged—should not outweigh present competence and character. The quote reflects a meritocratic, pragmatic business ethos: organizations succeed by selecting people who can do the job, not by collecting impressive résumés or excluding those with complicated histories. It also implies a belief in rehabilitation and second chances, while warning against credentialism and social bias in employment decisions.