The Folly of Imitation: Embracing One's Natural Abilities

Once upon a time, there was a hawk that resided atop a hill. At the bottom of the hill, a banyan tree stood, serving as a perch for a foolish crow. This crow had a peculiar habit of imitating others.

Every day, the hawk would descend from the hill in search of food. The crow observed the hawk, witnessing how it would circle in the sky for hours, then swiftly dive down to catch its prey. The hawk possessed keen eyesight, allowing it to spot its target from the hilltop before swooping down to seize it.

Watching the hawk, the crow thought to itself, "Ha! If the hawk can do it, so can I. What makes it so special? One day, I'll prove to the hawk that I can do the same." Fueled by misguided confidence, the crow made a plan.

A few days later, while the hawk was circling overhead, the crow decided to imitate its hunting technique. Just then, a baby rabbit emerged from the bushes. Both the hawk and the crow spotted the rabbit simultaneously.

Before the crow could make a move, the hawk swiftly descended, capturing the rabbit with its sharp talons, and disappeared into the sky with its prey. All the crow could hear was the whooshing sound as the hawk vanished. Filled with anger, the crow muttered, "That's not such a great skill after all."

In that moment, the crow noticed a plump mouse emerging from a hole. Without wasting a second, the crow attempted to imitate the hawk's hunting technique, swooping down to catch the mouse with its claws.

However, the mouse spotted the crow and swiftly evaded its grasp, causing the crow to crash into the hillside. In pain, the crow let out a cry of distress.

At that very moment, the hawk descended once again. "I hope you now understand that hunting is not easy, and neither is blindly imitating others," the hawk remarked before flying away.

From that day forward, the crow abandoned its habit of imitation and embraced its own natural abilities. It lived a content life, appreciating the unique gifts it had been bestowed with.

Shark Bait

 

During a research experiment a marine biologist placed a shark into a large holding tank and then released several small bait fish into the tank.

 

As you would expect, the shark quickly swam around the tank, attacked and ate the smaller fish.

The marine biologist then inserted a strong piece of clear fiberglass into the tank, creating two separate partitions. She then put the shark on one side of the fiberglass and a new set of bait fish on the other.

 

Again, the shark quickly attacked. This time, however, the shark slammed into the fiberglass divider and bounced off. Undeterred, the shark kept repeating this behavior every few minutes to no avail. Meanwhile, the bait fish swam around unharmed in the second partition. Eventually, about an hour into the experiment, the shark gave up.

 

This experiment was repeated several dozen times over the next few weeks. Each time, the shark got less aggressive and made fewer attempts to attack the bait fish, until eventually the shark got tired of hitting the fiberglass divider and simply stopped attacking altogether.

 

The marine biologist then removed the fiberglass divider, but the shark didn’t attack. The shark was trained to believe a barrier existed between it and the bait fish, so the bait fish swam wherever they wished, free from harm.

The moral: Many of us, after experiencing setbacks and failures, emotionally give up and stop trying. Like the shark in the story, we believe that because we were unsuccessful in the past, we will always be unsuccessful. In other words, we continue to see a barrier in our heads, even when no ‘real’ barrier exists between where we are and where we want to go.

The Story of a Wood Cutter

Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant and he got it. The pay was really good and so was the work condition. For those reasons, the woodcutter was determined to do his best.

 

His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he supposed to work.

 

The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees.

 

“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!”

 

Very motivated by the boss words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he could only bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.

 

“I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.

 

“When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked.

 

“Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees…”

 

Reflection:

Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don’t take time to sharpen the “axe”. In today’s world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy that ever.

Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay “sharp”? There’s nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we should not get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like our personal life, taking time to get close to our Creator, giving more time for our family, taking time to read etc.

 

We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don’t take the time to sharpen the “axe”, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.

Lessons of Perception: Contrasting Paths in the Sales World

Two friends, Jim and Stew, both joined a large sales company right after graduating, demonstrating their strong work ethic.

After three years had passed, the company's director decided to promote Stew to the position of sales executive, while Jim remained in the sales department without any promotion.

Feeling that this was unjust, Jim approached his boss and expressed his dissatisfaction, claiming that hard-working employees were not being appreciated. Recognizing Jim's dedication, the boss wanted to highlight the disparity between Jim and Stew, so he assigned Jim a task. He instructed Jim to find someone selling watermelons in the market and gather some information.

Jim ventured to the market and returned to the boss with the price of $12 per kilogram. Curious, the boss then asked Stew the same question. Stew embarked on his market expedition and returned with detailed information: there was currently only one watermelon seller, offering watermelons at $12 per kilogram or $100 for 10 kilograms. The seller had 340 watermelons in stock, with 48 of them displayed on the table, each weighing approximately 15 kilograms. Stew also added that these watermelons were purchased from the South two days ago, assuring their freshness and good quality.

Jim was astounded by the stark contrast between his own report and Stew's. He realized that there was much he could learn from his friend.

This story exemplifies the notion that successful individuals possess a heightened level of observation. They have the ability to think and plan years ahead, while many others only focus on immediate concerns.

Enjoy Life

 

An old man lived in the village. He was one of the most unfortunate people in the world. The whole village was tired of him; he was always gloomy, he constantly complained and was always in a bad mood.

 

The longer he lived, the more bile he was becoming and the more poisonous were his words. People avoided him, because his misfortune became contagious. It was even unnatural and insulting to be happy next to him.

 

He created the feeling of unhappiness in others.

 

But one day, when he turned eighty years old, an incredible thing happened. 

Instantly everyone started hearing the rumor:

 

“An Old Man is happy today, he doesn’t complain about anything, smiles, and even his face is freshened up.”

 

The whole village gathered together. The old man was asked:

 

Villager: What happened to you?

 

“Nothing special. Eighty years I’ve been chasing happiness, and it was useless. And then I decided to live without happiness and just enjoy life. That’s why I’m happy now.” – An Old Man

 

Moral of the story:

Don’t chase happiness. Enjoy your life.

The Greedy Lion

It was an incredibly hot day, and a lion was feeling very hungry.

 

He came out of his den and searched here and there. He could find only a small hare. He caught the hare with some hesitation. “This hare can’t fill my stomach” thought the lion.

 

As the lion was about to kill the hare, a deer ran that way. The lion became greedy. He thought;

“Instead of eating this small hare, let me eat the big deer.”

 

He let the hare go and went behind the deer. But the deer had vanished into the forest. The lion now felt sorry for letting the hare off.

 

Moral of the story:

A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

The Farmer and the Snake

A Farmer walked through his field one cold winter morning. On the ground lay a Snake, stiff and frozen with the cold. The Farmer knew how deadly the Snake could be, and yet he picked it up and put it in his bosom to warm it back to life.

The Snake soon revived, and when it had enough strength, bit the man who had been so kind to it. The bite was deadly and the Farmer felt that he must die. As he drew his last breath, he said to those standing around, “Learn from my fate not to take pity on a scoundrel or evildoer”.

Moral: There are some who never changes their nature, regardless of how good we behave with them. Always stay alert and maintain the distance from those who are there only thinking about their own benefits