In ancient times, a king had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the big stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. On approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. As the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many others never understand: Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve one’s condition.
Month: July 2014
Two kids sitting at the table. Mother asks the older one “I have 2 bowls of ice cream. One chocolate, one vanilla. Which one do you want.” The older one looks at both bowls, and says “I want the vanilla.” So the mother gives the older boy vanilla and the one remaining, the chocolate, she gives to the younger boy.
The 2 kids start eating the ice cream and the younger boy is just shoveling the chocolate ice cream in his mouth as he exclaims “This ice cream is soooo good!” The older boy takes a bite of his vanilla – yep vanilla, and notices the younger brother so happily enjoying his ice cream, he starts to complain “I wanted the chocolate. I mistook, I don’t really want vanilla.” But he continues to eat it. All the while noticing the younger brother enjoying each scoop of his chocolate. The older brother complaining with each scoop of his vanilla. Each bite he would mumble, a phrase” I don’t want this.” Or ” I want the vanilla” Or “This is isn’t fair.” Finally the older brother looks down at his last bite of ice cream totally dissatisfied and frowning and says “ah, my ice cream is all gone. I want more. But I don’t want vanilla, I want chocolate.”
When you LOOK at a problem you look at it in ALL possible ways. I was in Mexico City visiting a dentist there. He told me his wife was an artist. She denied it and he insisted she WAS. I thought she was self-effacing. I asked to see some of her sketches. And, she brought out her sketches . . . and there was an unusual scroll along the border of each picture. And very nice sketches of faces, flowers, animals and so on. And I picked up the picture and looked at it. I turned and looked at it this way, I looked at it this way, (turning the picture at all angles), I turned and looked at it THIS way. I took a little piece of paper and tore a hole in it about the size of my fingernail, and laid it down on the ornamental border and asked the dentist, “Look”. He said, “My word, there is a FACE there.” I moved it along and there was ANOTHER face. Sitting in that border were hundreds of faces in every one of her sketches. Her unconscious had put them there, I had been willing to discover them there. She is now an outstanding artist and runs an art gallery in the City of Mexico.