Open Your Mind to Prosperity

A conceited young man always thought very highly of himself. He thought that he had a lot of talents and capabilities. However, after graduated from school, he was constantly met with rebuffs and couldn’t find a suitable job for himself. He felt sorry for himself for not yet meeting that somebody who could see the talent and capability in him. And he got utterly disappointed with the world around him.

In despair, he came to the seaside and contemplated putting an end to his life. When he was about to commit suicide, an old man walked past and saved him. The old man asked him why he wanted to die. He replied that he was unable to obtain recognition from others and the society and that there was not a person who admired him and was willing to use his talents……

The old man took a grain of sand from the sandy beach under his feet. He showed it to the young man, then threw it back to the ground and said to him, ‘Can you pick up that grain of sand that I threw away just now.’ ‘It’s impossible!’ the young man said. The old man said nothing. He took out a piece of shiny pearl from his pocket and threw it off to the ground like before. ‘Can you pick up that piece of pearl that I threw away?’ ‘Of course!’ said the youth.

‘You should understand the reason then. You should know that you are not yet a pearl right now. Therefore, you shouldn’t expect people to give you recognition right away. If you want others to give you recognition, then you must turn yourself from a grain of sand into a pearl!’

Sometimes, it is important to know your real capability – whether you are still a simple grain of sand or already an expensive pearl. If you want to make yourself stand out amongst all around you, then you must work hard to turn yourself into that special gem that you want to be.

An Austrian psychiatrist named Viktor Frankl was kept in Nazi concentration camp for some time, suffering tortures and humiliation. Frankl ever felt despaired in a place like this where there were only indignity and inhumane massacre and blood-shed. Those who held the guns were like wild beast that could just kill a mother, a child or an old man without blinking his eyes. He lived in fear all the time. He was greatly pressurized psychologically by this fear for dying. Everyday in the concentration camp, there would be someone who went insane because to this. Frankl knew very well that if he couldn’t keep his mind in a stable state, he would not be able to escape from the fate of having mental breakdown too.

Once, Frankl was with a long line of prisoners to a site in the concentration camp for labor when, along the way, he had a hallucination. Will I be able to return alive tonight? Will I be able to eat today’s dinner? Will I be able to find a new shoe lace to replace the one worn-out? The hallucination made him feel wearied and uneasy. Therefore, he forced himself not to think about those horrible and upsetting things. Instead, he made himself to imagine him on the way to delivering a speech. He came to a brightly-lit spacious classroom and delivered his speech spiritedly. Gradually, a smile emerged on his face. It was a long lost smile. When he realized that he still could smile, he knew that he would not die in the concentration camp. He will walk out of it alive.

When he was released from the concentration camp, Frankl looked full of spirit without a look of weariness. His friends could not believe it – how could a person maintained his youth in a place like hell?

That is the magical power of one’s mentality. Sometimes, one’s mentality could defeat many negative miserable conditions. For a human being to survive, he needs a little food and water. But for him to live on, and live it to the fullest, he needs to have a broad mind, a spirit to fight on despite repeated setbacks and the wisdom to dissolve pain and bitterness.

A man Alex started a small business a few years ago and gradually made more profit each year.

He was the first among his friends to made it rich.

He worked hard seeking for greater success in his business but his health was affected.

Not long after, he contracted an incurable disease and passed away at a young age.

Friends around him were very sad for losing him.

Everyone suddenly felt that the most precious thing in life was nothing but health. Health was the real wealth to seek after.

Happiness and wealth are defined differently for everyone. They change with time even with the same person. What matters is before the end of your life; you realize that you have lived your life without regrets and that you have already found the true happiness and gained the wealth in your life.

A young man who started his working life was always complaining about being too poor.

An old man asked him: “If I give you 1 million dollars to turn into an 80-years-old man right away, will you do it?”

The young man replied:”No!”

The old man asked again: “If I give you one hundred million dollars to die immediately, will you do it?”

The young man replied again: “No!”

The old man laughed and said: “Aren’t you very wealthy? You’ve already got one hundred million dollars yourself!”

Once, a rich man and a poor man discussed about what ‘happiness’ is.

The poor man said: “Happiness is ‘now’.”

The rich man looked at the poor man’s little hut and his old torn clothes and said with despise: “How can you call this happiness? My happiness is having hundreds of luxurious houses and thousands of servants!”

One day, the rich man’s houses were on fire. They were completely burnt to ruins and all his servants ran away. The rich man became a beggar overnight.

On a hot summer day, the beggar who was sweating all over passed by the poor man’s little hut. He knocked at his door and asked for a little drink. The poor man took a big bowl of water and asked, ‘What do you think is happiness now?’ The beggar replied, ‘Happiness is the bowl of water in your hand now.’

So my friend, Happiness is Now not the past or future.

In the 19th century, there was a Swedish young man born of a poor family. He didn’t have enough to eat nor attend school. Though grown up in such an environment, he was not discouraged. In his leisure time, he self-learnt and gained a lot of knowledge in the field of architecture and building. He decided to use what he had learnt to change his fate.

The young men’s knowledge got him a small assistant job in a construction company. He worked hard and eventually his outstanding performance got him chances to assist in the jobs of some well-known architects. During this period, he gained much precious knowledge and experience. Together with his talents, he gradually gained a little fame and trust in the architecture world. However, without good qualifications and background, he still couldn’t get into the upper class circle to become a high status and famous architect no matter how hard he worked. The young man thus got depressed.

One day, he saw a group of guards following the Swedish king, Charles XIV John, for his visit. ‘If only I have the opportunity like the king.’ Charles XIV John was French and was Napoleon’s marshal. His excellent capability was much liked by the old Swedish king that the king made him his foster son before he died, wanting him to rule Sweden. Charles XIV John indeed lived up to the old king’s expectation. He was an excellent ruler.
‘But how do I attract the king’s attention?’ the young man thought. ‘It will be good if I could build a very special thing to win the king’s attention.’ Then the man’s eyes twinkled, ‘Oh, yes! The king was French. If I could build something similar to the Arch de Triumph in France, I’ll be able to win his attention.’

With this in mind, the young man started looking around for the support of some of his old customers, the entrepreneurs. Soon in a little town in Sweden, he built something that contained the charm of the Arch de Triumph in France. One day, the king passed by the little town and when he saw it, he was stunned. The look of it reminded him of his early days and sprang up his emotions.

The king then asked to meet the young man and praised him for his architectural skill. The young man, after being complimented by the king, shot to great fame. The various media fought to report news about him and his architectural works. Everyone called him a genius. From then on, he got himself into the upper class society and became the great master of Architecture in Sweden.

What else does a person need to gain greater success together with his good brains and excellent skills? He needs to get hold of opportunities and make use of his wisdom to use all possible chances to sell himself and attract others’ attention.

‘We’ve wasted too much time’, a young assistant told Thomas Edison, and ‘we’ve tried 20,000 times but still haven’t found the right material for making the filament.’

‘No!’ the genius answered. ‘But we’ve already known 20,000 types of materials that cannot be used for making the filament.’ It was with this spirit that Thomas Edison eventually found the right material and invented practical light bulbs and changed history.

A wise person learns from his failures whereas a failure keeps on failing, not able to learn any experience from his failures. Failures shouldn’t be the reason the get discouraged and lost the fighting spirit. They should instead be the new motivation.

In a forest, a man was working hard with all his might and enthusiasm in sawing a tree. A stranger walked past him and stopped to look on. ‘What are you doing?’ the stranger asked him. ‘Can’t you see?’ the man answered impatiently and breathlessly, ‘I want the tree to fall.’

‘You look totally exhausted!’ the stranger said raising his voice to be heard, ‘How long have you been working on this?’ The man sawing the wood replied, ‘More than 5 hours. I’m truly exhausted. This is really a piece of hard work.’

Then the stranger asked him, ‘Hey, why don’t you pause for a few minutes and sharpen your saw? I can guarantee you that you can saw even faster than this after that.’ The man answered, ‘I don’t have the time. I’m so busy with my work. How can I have the time for sharpening the saw?’

In life, study and work make our lives busy and tensed. Moving on continuously without stopping may in fact be slowing us down in our path to success. Take a rest, sharpen our tools, equip ourselves with greater skill or knowledge or simply review the way we are working. By doing these, we are shortening our path to success.

A skilful martial arts practitioner took part in a competition, full of confidence in winning it. Unexpectedly, at the last round in the finals, he met a very skilful opponent. Both parties had a very exciting exchange, displaying their best skill in it. In the middle of the competition, the confident man realized that he could not find faults in the opponent’s moves whereas the opponent was always able to break his own defense through the loop holes in it. In the end, the confident man suffered a terrible failure and lost.

He then went to look up his master, still not able to accept his failure. He showed his master in detail each and every step of the moves he had exchanged with his opponent in the competition, begging him to help him find the faults in the opponent’s skilful moves. He had made up his mind to find out his opponent’s faults and work hard on finding new moves that would be able to attack them. He was determined to win back the championship in the next competition.

The master smiled without saying a word. He drew a straight line on the ground and asked him how he can make this line become shorter without erasing it. The man was puzzled. How can there be a way, according to his master, to make the line shorter without erasing it? He thought for a long while and gave up. He begged his master for enlightenment.

The master stood near the line on the ground and drew another longer line next to it. Comparing the two lines, the initial line now appeared shorter. The master said, ‘The key to winning martial arts competition is not only in attacking the opponent’s weak points. Just like the 2 lines on the ground, it’s only when you become stronger can you make the opponent become weaker like the initial line. How to make yourself stronger is what you need to work hard on now.’

A carpenter went up the mountain everyday to collect woods for his supply. He led an ordinary lifestyle.

One day, he went up the mountain as usual when he came by an injured bird. This bird was no ordinary bird because it was all covered with shining bright silver feathers. The carpenter said happily, ‘Wow! I’ve never seen such a beautiful bird before in my life!’ Therefore, he brought the silver bird back home, treated on its wound and looked after it. During the days of recuperation, the silver bird sang songs to the carpenter everyday, adding joy to his routine life.

One day, the carpenter’s neighbor saw his silver bird. He told him about the golden bird he had seen before who was a thousand times more beautiful than this silver bird that he had. Furthermore, the golden bird sang more beautifully than this silver bird. The carpenter thought, ‘Oh, you mean there’s even a golden bird? How nice will it be if I have a golden bird?’ So everyday, the carpenter kept thinking about the golden bird. He no longer paid full attention to the silver bird’s beautiful singing. He grew unhappier each day.

One day, the carpenter stood outside his house at the door looking at the golden sun as it was setting in the sky. He tried to imagine how beautiful the golden bird was. Just then, the silver bird which had fully recovered from its injury was preparing to leave. It landed next to the carpenter and sang a last song to him. The carpenter said with a sorry tone, ‘You have a sweet voice but not as sweet as the golden bird. Your feathers are very beautiful but not as beautiful as the golden bird.’ The silver bird finished singing and bade farewell to the carpenter by flying 3 rounds around him. It then flew towards the golden sun in the sky. The carpenter was watching the silver bird when suddenly he saw it turn into a golden bird under the rays of the setting sun. The golden bird that he had been wishing for was right before his eyes! But it was too late. The golden bird had flown far away and will not be back anymore.

We are all blessed with many golden birds around us but we always see them as silver, bronze or copper ones while still looking and wishing for a golden bird for ourselves. Don’t wait for them to leave before we realize their importance to us. What has been lost cannot be regained. Therefore, cherish everything you have with you now and stop regrets from happening.