Skip to main content

~The Parables of the Marbles~

Let me see... how should I start this post........?
Every now and then, we are dogged by our desires (i.e. wants rather than needs). However, we are often unsure of where the line is drawn between knowing what are our wants and what our needs. Not surprising, that we find that satisfying our wants will more often than not lead to a selfish decision.

Purely out of curiousity, I was browsing through some self-help books and I bumped into this story that describes how selfishness can become the very button that leads to losing the things important to onself.

Once upon a time, there was a foolish boy who had a bag full of beautiful marbles. Now this boy was quite proud of his marbles. In fact, he thought so much of them that he would neither play with them himself nor would he let anyone else play with them. He only took them out of the bag in order to count and admire them; they were never used for their intended purpose. Yet that boy carried that coveted bag of marbles everywhere he went.

Well, there was also a wise boy who wished he could have such a fine bag of marbles. So this boy worked hard and earned money to purchase a nice bag to hold marbles. Even though he had not yet earned enough with which to purchase any marbles, he had faith and purchased the marble bag. He took special care of the bag and dreamed of the day it would contain marbles with which he could play and share with his friends.

Alas, the foolish boy with all of the marbles didn't take care of the marble bag itself, and one day the bag developed a hole in the bottom seam. Still, he paid no attention and, one by one, the marbles fell out of the bag.

It didn't take long, once the foolish boy's marble bag developed a hole, for the wise boy to begin to find those beautiful marbles, one at a time, lying unnoticed on the ground. And, one by one, he added them to his marble bag. The wise boy thus gained a fine bag full of marbles in no time at all. This boy played with the marbles and shared them with all of his friends. And he always took special care of the bag so he wouldn't lose any.

And what about the foolish boy? Because he was selfish and careless, he lost all of his marbles and was left holding the bag.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

one foot in the past, another in the future........ what about the present?

All of us go through a cycle, what we commonly call - the past, present and the future. It can probably be summed up by this simple phrase: " we come from the past to be in the present and look forward to the future ". Now, what I want you to do is take a step back, or just give your mind a minute or two to digest the above mentioned phrase. Ask yourself if it applies to you. Really ask yourself; and I mean REALLY ask yourself in the most honest of manner, whether it really applies to you. You may find it difficult to arrive at a 'yes' and even if you do, you probably find yourself in a paralysis state of mind trying to justify the 'yes'. If you really ponder about it, you are likely to find that most of us would find this phrase more relevant instead: " we come from the past and look forward to the future " You will find many of us either hang on to the past or look far too forward into the future, or likely for some to even be dwelling too much in ...

Entrepreneurship....

Every now and then, some people make it big time in the business world either from, pioneering a fresh new business strategy to improving something that is thought to be already at it's best. Entrepreneurs can be found in virtually any part of this world. I guess, when you think about an entrepreneur in a global perspective, the first few people you might think of would be - William H. Gates who founded Microsoft, Steve Jobs who brought to us the iPod or even Warren Buffet arguably the best investor in THE world. Bring it down to a narrower perspective, the local scene - Tony Fernandes co-founder of AirAsia and Teh Hong Piow founder of Public Bank Berhad (equivalent to a PLC), and of course there are many more! I guess, there are times when we sit down and ponder, "how exactly did these people turn out to be who they are?". Were they born with such innate ability? Did they have parents that constantly gave them inspiration to be their own boss? Did they have a natural eye...

hiatus!

After having been online on the ~Path of Time~ since 2006..... it is going to be hard, painful and sad. As of today, I will officially stop writing on the ~Path of Time~. For those who have continued to read my posts, I thank you very much for taking timeout to read my posts. I am not sure if all my writings were great but I'll be happy to know even if it was only one post that reached your heart. I may one day pick up from where I left off here but only time will tell. Who knows I might even start afresh? Until next time.......... time stops ticking for the ~Path of Time~