There once lived a great mathematician in a village outside Ujjain. He was often called by the local king to advice on matters related to the economy. His reputation had spread as far as Taxila in the North and Kanchi in the South. So it hurt him very much when the village headman told him, “You may be a great mathematician who advises the king on economic matters but your son does not know the value of gold or silver.”

The mathematician called his son and asked, “What is more valuable - gold or silver?” “Gold,” said the son. “That is correct. Why is it then that the village headman makes fun of you, claims you do not know the value of gold or silver? He teases me every day. He mocks me before other village elders as a father who neglects his son. This hurts me. I feel everyone in the village is laughing behind my back because you do not know what is more valuable, gold or silver. Explain this to me, son.”

So the son of the mathematician told his father the reason why the village headman carried this impression. “Every day on my way to school, the village headman calls me to his house. There, in front of all village elders, he holds out a silver coin in one hand and a gold coin in other. He asks me to pick up the more valuable coin. I pick the silver coin. He laughs, the elders jeer, everyone makes fun of me. And then I go to school. This happens every day. That is why they tell you I do not know the value of gold or silver.”

The father was confused. His son knew the value of gold and silver, and yet when asked to choose between a gold coin and silver coin always picked the silver coin. “Why don’t you pick up the gold coin?” he asked. In response, the son took the father to his room and showed him a box. In the box were at least a hundred silver coins. Turning to his father, the mathematician’s son said, “The day I pick up the gold coin the game will stop. They will stop having fun and I will stop making money.”

Moral of the story…

Sometimes in life, we have to play the fool because our seniors and our peers, and sometimes even our juniors like it. That does not mean we lose in the game of life. It just means allowing others to win in one arena of the game, while we win in the other arena of the game. We have to choose which arena matters to us and which arenas do not.

You are not a Barracuda!

Sometimes ago, scientist carried out a simple experiment on a barracuda (marine fish). They put the barracuda into a big glass aquarium and began to feed the barracuda with small fishes. The barracuda would swim towards the small fishes and in one gulp would swallow them. They continued putting the small fishes into the glass container as food for the barracuda. Then one day the scientist put a glass partition at the center of the glass aquarium. They put the small fishes into the opposite side of the glass aquarium. As the barracuda approached to have it’s food, it would hit against the glass partition. This puzzled the barracuda, but it kept on trying.

And it kept on failing and hitting against the glass partition until one day, it stopped trying. The scientists then removed the glass partition, and the small fishes were released to swim all over the glass aquarium. The amazing discovery was that the barracuda did not attempt to go for the fishes. It had been conditioned to think that it would only hit against the glass partition. The sad thing was that, eventually, the barracuda died surrounded with abundance of food.

Moral of the story…

Just like the barracuda, most of us stop ourselves from trying again just because we have experienced failures in the past. We think that since we failed before, trying again would be futile as the result would probably be the same. We prefer to die rather than try, just like the barracuda. We have been conditioned not to try anymore because of the fear of failure. To be successful we have to get rid of this limiting belief, and accept a new and empowering belief, “the future does not equal the past”. What’s past is just history, the future will be different.

If we have failed earlier, we need not worry, just stand up and try again. It doesn’t mean that we are going to fail all the time. So let’s not get hit by the phobia, of losing again. Success will not come in the first try. We use the ‘trial and error method’ to achieve success; this means that if we have not failed before, you are not going to discover how to succeed.

A sailor was stuck on an island where he was the only survivor. He made a hut for his shelter. He was waiting for someone to help, but no one came. He stored food in the hut for his survival but one day, the hut burnt to ashes and nothing was left of it. He was so angry he said, “God, Why have you done this to me?” The next morning rescuers came. The sailor asked, “How did you know that I am here?” They replied, “We saw a SMOKE SIGNAL.”

Trust God when misfortune happens.

His plans are always different from ours.

Shubham Bhatia, Itinder Singh Sondhi