Once upon a time, there lived a poor farmer in a village. One day, he bought a goose, thinking that the goose would lay eggs, which he could eat and sell. To his surprise, he found a glittering golden egg in the goose’s nest the next morning. The goose started laying a golden egg every day. The farmer couldn’t believe his good fortune. Day after day, he awakened to rush to the nest and found another golden egg. He became fabulously wealthy. It all seemed too good to be true.
Inherently covetous by nature just like all of us, the farmer became greedy and impatient , decided to cut open the goose and get the golden eggs all at once. But then he felt a sense of déjà vu as if he is reliving an eerie dream once again. Those few seconds left him with a question that why humans always want what they don’t have? Why they always see the grass greener on the other side, no matter how often they jump back and forth over the fence. He got very clear that this innate acquisitive nature of humans makes them err, unremittingly.
Other than the understanding ‘too much greed always leads to great loss’, the farmer drew back the curtain further and understood a divine reality hidden lost somewhere in between the lines. That day he understood that be it any situation, or any relation, balance is the most vital tool to achieve true effectiveness and fruitfullness. He learnt that day that one needs to adopt a ‘pattern of life’ that focuses on ‘maintaining balance’.
The effectiveness and success of any action lie in ‘the balance’. The farmer started to take immense care of his goose – his only assest. He invested his time and energy in the goose’s health and welfare. And his asset in result didn’t disappoint him. His patience, his resilience and his mature understading of maintaining a balanced pattern of life earned him fortunes. And he lived happily ever after.
How beautifully true this stands for all our physical, emotional and financial assests. To get the desired results from a particular asset, the asset should be taken good care of. In your case, your asset could be your child, your spouse, your friend, your employee, your student, or your financial resources. If you carry a ‘golden egg mentality‘ and always want to have your way, your relationships will go down the drain and you will be standing empty-handed.
Likewise, when two people in a marriage are more concerned about getting the golden eggs – the benefits, they neglect the kindness and courtesy and become insensitive and inconsiderate towards each other. The goose gets sicker day by day. And the love eventually fades. In a parent’s relationship with a child, when a parent is more concerned about getting the golden eggs, he yells, intimidates, forces their way, or on the contrary, pleases their child unnecessarily, and gives him his way all the time. The goose gets sick either road. In the former scenario the child grows up to be judgemental or lacks confidence, or in the latter scenario has no sense of responsibility or self-discipline. When you are more concerned about getting the golden eggs from your employee, you might get his creativity and resourcefulness but never his loyalty and enthusiasm.
Effectiveness lies in maintaining a balance. A balance between yielding the golden egg and the welfare of the goose. If the strategy is effective, it balances the short term with the long term. It balances a desire to have your child, spouse, or employee do something that you want, and building a relationship in which your child, spouse, or employee is internally committed to doing it happily and willingly for you. It’s all about getting a continuous yield for a lifetime from a production house that is healthy, cheerful, and strong.
Success lies in maintaining the balance…
~QuratulAin Hamza
QuratulAin Hamza 