There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village.
As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish.
The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?”
The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.”
“Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished.
“This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said.
The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?”
The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”
The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman.
“I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.”
The fisherman continues, “And after that?”
The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.”
The fisherman asks, “And after that?”
The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!”
The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?”
Month: June 2014
Once upon a time, there was a small boy who banged a drum all day and loved every moment of it. He would not be quiet, no matter what anyone else said or did. His parents were quite forward-thinking people and believed that it is important to make your own decisions. So they didn’t just take the drum away from the boy. Instead, they tried to persuade him. They called upon many wise men and asked each one of the these people to convince the boy to stop playing the drum.
Lots of good ideas were offered.
The first person who came was a scientist. The scientist explained to the boy about sound waves and the power of sound. He told the boy if he continued to play the drum in that way, that there was a good chance that he might break his eardrum. However, the boy was just a child and this scientific thinking was too difficult for him, so he just kept playing his drum.
The next person who came was a priest from the temple. He came dressed in his colourful robes and burning incense. He explained to the boy that drum-beating was a sacred activity and should be carried out only on special occasions and at certain ceremonies. But the boy didn’t really understand, and besides, he really wasn’t all that interested in these gods that he couldn’t even see, so… the noise continued.
The third person who came was an engineer who had studied in the university in the capital and she was very smart indeed. She was also very practical at finding good solutions. She didn’t even bother talking to the boy because that seemed inefficient. Instead, she gave the parents and the neighbors earplugs. It was a great idea, but unfortunately, the earplugs couldn’t keep out the constant drumming from morning to night.
The fourth person who came was a teacher. He gave the boy a book and tried to get the boy interested in education. “There is so much more to learn – so many amazing things in this world – and books can be the doorway to a new world for you.” The boy looked at the pictures for a while and then turned back to the drum. It seemed so much more fun.
The fifth person who came was a therapist who believed that the child suffered from anger issues. Obviously, the child was playing the drum all the time because he was angry at the people around him. So the therapist gave the boy meditation exercises to make him calm and explained that all reality was imagination… The boy sat in the right pose and made the right om sound for what seemed like a long time to the boy – almost one whole minute, in fact! And then he picked up the drum again and the noise continued.
And then finally, an old woman came by and heard the drum and said, “what is that noise?” The neighbours explained about the boy and how the scientist, the priest, the engineer,the teacher, and the therapist had all been unable to help. It seemed like nothing could be done. The old woman looked at the situation calmly and smiled at the boy. Then she picked up a hammer and chisel and said to the boy, “I wonder what is inside the drum?”
Many many years ago, two monks were walking through a town where a great rain had fallen and the main street of the town was flooded. A beautiful lady in her best clothes was trying to cross the road, but couldn’t cross because she was afraid that she would damage her clothes.
The older monk looked at the lady, and despite his religious vow to never touch a woman, he gently lifted the woman off the ground and carried her safely across the flooded street to the other side. Then he returned to the younger monk.
The younger monk said nothing, but had a look so fiery on his face that it could have boiled the water around their feet. All day, they continued to walk, and the younger monk continued to display his angry face.
Finally, the younger monk stopped, turned to the older monk and said:
“How could you have done that?”
“Done what?”, said the older monk.
“How could you have carried that woman like that? You know that our vows forbid us from touching a woman.”
The older monk smiled gently and said,
“I carried her for one minute a long time ago. Are you still carrying her in your heart?”
One day a little teddy bear was sitting by a lake… quietly watching what was going on…. just enjoying being relaxed and calm… the little bear had one or two good friends among the birds and the other animals… but never really felt part of it…. like an outsider…. and didn’t know why…. whenever a big important animal came along … the little bear got flustered or embarrassed or said the wrong thing…. never knew what to do.
And the bear was thinking about this when a voice said “What would you like things to be like?” The bear looked around startled… and saw a cat with big floppy ears sitting on a low box, watching, the way cats do.
“Who are you?” said the bear.
“That’s not important”, said the cat with the large ears. “Do you know who you are? That’s what’s important”.
“How did you get here?”
“That’s not important, either.” the cat said, smugly, and began to nibble a tadpole.
“That’s a funny looking box you’re sitting on.” said the bear, at length.
“Oh this – it’s not a box, it’s a book, actually.”
The bear looked at the book for a while and said “It doesn’t look very comfortable. ”
“It’s not meant to be comfortable. It’s meant to let you do what you want.”
“Wow” said the bear, impressed. “Anything you want?”
“Mmmm”
“And would it let me do anything I want?” asked the bear, hopefully.
“Sure,” said the cat, who was now deep in the weeds at the edge of the water searching for another tadpole “Just imagine what you want and the book will open at the right page.”
The bear thought and thought… and looked hard at the book over there… there was something the bear had always wanted to do…. but never dared… it wasn’t possible, was it?…. or was it?… or maybe not… and while the bear’s woolly mind was busy wondering if the book might… could… the book suddenly flipped open.
“Ah…” said the cat through a mouth full of goldfish “I see you’ve managed to get it working.”
“But I’m not sure what to do next.” said the bear, nervously.
“Simple. Just look at the instructions, and apply them.”
The bear peered at the book, and sure enough, there were the exact instructions needed. The bear was elated. It was so simple. Just do as the book says. It was obvious what to do. So with a quick “Thanks, whoever you are!” the bear was off down the path to try it out.
And just a few steps down the path, a family of ducks turned up, complaining noisily about missing goldfish. And then all twelve baby ducks started crying and carrying on and in all the fuss and noise the bear forgot the instructions.
So the bear turned back and found the cat lying down contentedly scratching his belly with a stick. And the book was closed.
“What do I do now?” wailed the bear.
“Why not think of something else you would like to do?” said the cat.
So the bear thought and thought, and was busy trying to decide whether to ask about this thing or that thing, when the book popped open on its own. Surprised, the bear went over and peered into it, and again the exact instructions were right there…. how to do an even more important thing the bear needed.
Quick as flash the bear set off again down the path…. determined to ignore all distractions… bustling along as fast as possible… and tripped over a tree root. “Oh dash and pepperpots!” said the bear. “Why does this always happen to me? Why isn’t the path kept clear the way it’s supposed to be…” and going over those same old complaints soon drove the instructions clear out of that silly bear’s head.
“Back again?” said the cat, busy carving a flute out a fish bone. “Well, you should know how it works by now. You don’t need me to tell you. ” and left the bear to get on with it, blowing a few experimental notes on the flute all the while.
The bear had hardly begun to think when the book flipped open again, so hard that it spun right round before settling back on the ground. “Goodness, I am getting good at this.” thought the bear and in a moment was scurrying down the path again, pushing leaves aside and being very, very careful about roots. The bear was making good progress, getting on towards doing the most important thing of all….when it began to rain…. and that silly bear started to think about getting home and worrying if the windows were left open or not…. and before long was trudging back up the path again, dejected and miserable and now wet as well.
The bear found the cat settled comfortably in front of a cozy fire under a little shelter and trying out a new tune on the flute. And as the tune faded away… a few damp notes still hanging in the air… the cat looked over, took a long lazy stretch, and said…
“You know, I wonder if maybe you are making an assumption here?”
And the bear thought about it, and realised the cat was right.
A friend of mine is a musician and always seems to be learning new instruments, new tunes, and new ways of making music in cool ways. At the weekend, he loves to go into Central Park in the center of Nagoya during the daytime where lots of Japanese bands perform. Now, some of these bands are really really good, and some of them are – how shall I say this – a little less good. One of the things that my friend likes about watching all the bands is that it is free! And as he says to me, “Because something is expensive, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s good… and if something is free, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it has no value. You have to listen and look yourself and find out what is valuable for you. And of course, as you listen and look, you may learn very different things to someone else.”
So my friend goes every week when the weather is fine, and he says that he learns something from every single band! When he watches and listens to the really good bands, he says that he learns new riffs from the guitar player and cool rhythms from the funky drummers. I guess that it’s not surprising that you can learn a lot by watching excellent performers.
But what’s really interesting is that my friend says, “You can learn by watching and listening to the bad performers, too. When I watch a bad performer, I think to myself – wow, that’s another thing that I’m not going to do.”
So my friend gets better and better, learning from both good and bad performers. And he says that “you can have so much fun learning and improving in ways that you never even imagined!.”
The Dancing Centipede
Once there was a centipede who delighted in dancing. At night when the moon began to rise and shed its soft light onto the grassy slope below, Centipede would stretch one of her several beautiful long legs. “Aaaahhh…” she would sigh into the cool night air. And then, she would close her eyes and begin to sway to the music of the nearby stream as it splashed over the pebbles and stones. Slowly, at first, her numerous dainty feet started to move by two’s and four’s and ten’s in a carefully choreographed pattern, faster and faster, until she found herself framed in her spotlight from the moon. Head thrown back, legs outstretched she belted in true Ethel Merman fashion “I’m just a Broadway Baby… 100 legs-each kicking higher than the last, “Struttin’ my stuff…” 100 feet , each encased in a tiny gold slipper, “All over the earth to-night.” Now swinging from the branch of an abandoned hut, Bat wanted to join her – Top hat, tails, and all – but the movements were so … amazing! So brilliant! So dazzling! So absolutely out of his league! He would have to settle for admiration only – and a dream. From the water’s shallows, Frog ribbeted appreciation and Cricket chirped as Centipede executed one multi-legged split after another, finally concluding with a twisting top spiral balancing herself deftly on the tips of her 50th right and left legs, all 98 others tucked one round the other. Goose was absolutely energized by the evening’s performance and couldn’t stop honking “Bravo’s” as she waddled over to where Centipede paused still lost in her moment of artistic brilliance. “Simply stunning,” Lizard hissed and whistled. “Oh, please, show us how you do it,” cooed Dove from a branch. “Yeesss, pleeaassee,” they all shouted. “Tell us! Which foot do you start with? And which foot do you end with? How do you know what to do?” “Quiet, everyone,” said Centipede confidently untwirling herself with ease. Everybody moved closer to hear her words of wisdom. She smiled at the admiring audience in front of her, took a deep breath and said, “Well, first I…” She paused, looked at her feet, moved several of them this way and that.”I…”And, then, she wobbled – ever so slightly – and a curious, confused expression came across her face. From that night on, Centipede never danced again.
(Adapted folk tale)
Although the talented Centipede was baffled into paralysis by questions exploring her technique, had she studied NLP, she probably would have danced after that night and,what’s more, she could have learned how to share her skills with others. How can this metaphor be useful for teachers to learn about NLP and to share insights about behavior? Many teachers-and students-are like both the Centipede and her Admirers. They have a special skill (the Centipede) and, still they desire something more (the Admirers). They have a knack for doing some things well but suddenly become confused and stumped when trying to explain or analyze performance. What does that imply about skill or talents and, also, the thinking processes? How conscious are we of what we do? Is a particular skill inspired by the gods or is it a habit developed over time by persistence and practice? Viola Spolin, the American artist-educator and author of several books on improvisational theatre techniques for children and adults, strongly objected to the concept of talent as a special genius. Spolin insisted that each of us, at birth, has a capacity to experience and as we progress through life, we either expand that capacity or we limit it.
A woman is out for a walk when she falls into a deep hole from which there appears to be no way out. She cries out for help and a passing academic leans over and offers her advice on how to avoid such holes in future. Later a religious leader hears her cries and suggests she thinks about the true meaning of her predicament and says that there is a being somewhere who cares about her. Subsequently a therapist responds with an offer to help her explore how she allowed herself to get into this situation. Various other professionals offer advice as the woman sinks into deeper despair. Lastly a friend comes by, realises what has happened and jumps into the hole with her. The woman is pleased to have the company but also wonders why her friend has put herself in the same situation. The friend replies “I have been in this hole before, I know the way out”
While professional soccer is still struggling to find a firm foothold in the United States, in the 1970s the North American Soccer League marked the brave first attempt to introduce the game to American sports fans. While most teams had only limited success at best, one did manage to break through to genuine mainstream popularity – the New York Cosmos.
It was the brainchild of Steve Ross, a passionate soccer fan who was also a major executive at Warner Communications.
Max Ross told his son Steve: “In life there are those who work all day, those who dream all day, and those who spend an hour dreaming before setting to work to fulfil those dreams. Go into the third category because there’s virtually no competition”.
Source: “Once In A Lifetime – The Extraordinary Story Of The New York Cosmos” by Gavin Newsham