I am going to re-produce here, an inspirational story that I received today. It is a short story which hits the nail right on the head. Here it is.
WHERE TO TAP
Ever heard the story of the giant ship engine that failed? The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom. Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed! A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars. "What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!" So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."
The man sent a bill that read:
Tapping with a hammer ........................ $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap ............................ $ 9998.00
Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort in your life makes all the difference.
When I read this story, I was instantly reminded of many of 'us' who are so talented and who are sincere in our effors but for some reason never seem to be scaling the heights of success and satisfaction that many others do. The one thing that struck me hard after I read this story is that it is not only enough to make efforts. It is more important to make those efforts in the right direction. And for this one requires a strong sense of purpose and a clear goal.
I hope this story helps provoke some useful thoughts for all of you as well.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Right / Wrong; Perfection / Excellence
This post is sort of a sequel to the previous one. I was inspired to do this sequel after reading the feedback on the previous post by one of my friends . This friend’s name is Baskar and he is one of those friends whom I can fall back on when life becomes a little harsh on me. I know he is always there to help me when I need him even though we don’t talk much these days. And I owe it to him to add here that he has been an important inspiration in my journey of self-analysis and deep thinking.
Baskar has given some real good insights to the previous post on ‘Do the right things – ALWAYS!”. He said two things mainly. One is that ‘Nothing is good or bad”. Second, “Don’t strive for perfection because nothing is perfect in the world. Strive for excellence instead”.
I almost second his thoughts as I expected this reaction about perfectionism from at least one person who read the post. In fact, as I was writing the post itself, I was trying to figure out a better way to drive the moral of the story home without using the term ‘perfection’. But, for me that word holds a lot of value, though I know it is impossible for any one to be perfect. For me, striving to be perfect is the road to excellence. That is why, if you notice, in the beginning of this paragraph, I said ‘I almost second’ Baskar’s thoughts and not ‘I second’. Though I do agree that nothing is perfect in this world, I do not agree that this is reason enough for me not to strive to get there. I always believed and still believe that if I had to play the game of life by the rules that are most popular, then I become one among the crowd and lose my identity. I also believe that every person excels in what he does by striving for perfection.
I have in the last couple of years thought a lot about perfectionism and have understood why being perfect is at times dangerous to your psychological health. So, I have learnt not to ‘be perfect’, but to ‘strive to be perfect’. When I say one should strive to be perfect, I would like to add that I don’t mean that one should become obsessed with perfection but always have a keen eye for detail and conscientiously try to do the job at hand to one’s highest capability. This will automatically lead to excellence. However, I will leave each one of you to decide how you would like to reach excellence in your endeavors.
Coming to the good vs. bad part, Baskar is right about nothing being good or bad. What is good to you is not good to me. But we all learn what is the right thing to do in life by either having made a mistake once before or by having seen some one make a mistake. And the next time we are faced with the same situation, we should try to evoke the right response rather than wrong. However, whether you want to call the mistake you made ‘bad’ or ‘just a learning’ is up to you. What is more important is to understand not to repeat a deed which brought you unhappiness, shame or embarrassment ever again!
I conclude this post by saying a big thank you to Baskar for having facilitated this thought sharing by his thought provoking feedback.
Baskar has given some real good insights to the previous post on ‘Do the right things – ALWAYS!”. He said two things mainly. One is that ‘Nothing is good or bad”. Second, “Don’t strive for perfection because nothing is perfect in the world. Strive for excellence instead”.
I almost second his thoughts as I expected this reaction about perfectionism from at least one person who read the post. In fact, as I was writing the post itself, I was trying to figure out a better way to drive the moral of the story home without using the term ‘perfection’. But, for me that word holds a lot of value, though I know it is impossible for any one to be perfect. For me, striving to be perfect is the road to excellence. That is why, if you notice, in the beginning of this paragraph, I said ‘I almost second’ Baskar’s thoughts and not ‘I second’. Though I do agree that nothing is perfect in this world, I do not agree that this is reason enough for me not to strive to get there. I always believed and still believe that if I had to play the game of life by the rules that are most popular, then I become one among the crowd and lose my identity. I also believe that every person excels in what he does by striving for perfection.
I have in the last couple of years thought a lot about perfectionism and have understood why being perfect is at times dangerous to your psychological health. So, I have learnt not to ‘be perfect’, but to ‘strive to be perfect’. When I say one should strive to be perfect, I would like to add that I don’t mean that one should become obsessed with perfection but always have a keen eye for detail and conscientiously try to do the job at hand to one’s highest capability. This will automatically lead to excellence. However, I will leave each one of you to decide how you would like to reach excellence in your endeavors.
Coming to the good vs. bad part, Baskar is right about nothing being good or bad. What is good to you is not good to me. But we all learn what is the right thing to do in life by either having made a mistake once before or by having seen some one make a mistake. And the next time we are faced with the same situation, we should try to evoke the right response rather than wrong. However, whether you want to call the mistake you made ‘bad’ or ‘just a learning’ is up to you. What is more important is to understand not to repeat a deed which brought you unhappiness, shame or embarrassment ever again!
I conclude this post by saying a big thank you to Baskar for having facilitated this thought sharing by his thought provoking feedback.
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