The Guru at the Beach
I've been reading a couple of posts here about motivation and pursuing your dreams and goals, so I thought I'd toss one out there, too. This has been around for a little while, so some of you probably have heard it, but maybe some have not. It's been a while since I first heard it, so I am paraphrasing a bit.
So, there was this businessman who was struggling a little bit and not having the kind of success he wanted. He heard tell of this guru who knew the ultimate secret of success and decided to seek him out.
When he met the guru and asked him for his secret, he was told "if you really want to learn, meet me at the beach tomorrow morning and I will share my secret with you."
The businessman thought this was a bit weird, but decided he would go to the beach and see what he could learn, if anything. So the next morning, he meets the guru at the beach and say "ok, I am ready to learn. Please, share your secret."
"I will share my secret," said the guru, "but first, you must come into the water with me." He then proceeded to walk into the water up to his knees. The businessman was a bit surprised at this and hadn't brought his swimsuit, but because he really wanted to learn, he pulled off his shoes and socks, rolled up his pants and went into the water.
"So, what is the secret?" he asked, but the guru walked further into the water, up to his waist and motioned for the businessman to follow, which he did, reluctantly. "Please, can you tell me now what the secret is?"
"Come a little farther," the guru said, walking out until the water reached his chin. By now, the business man was starting to think the guru was crazy, but having come this far, he followed him the last few steps.
"Tell me now," the businessman said. "Tell me the secret of how to be successful!" Before he could say another word, though, the guru grabbed the businessman's head and forced it under water. The businessman struggled but could not break free. He fought with all his strength, desperate to escape the hold of the guru, thrashing about in the water like a wild animal. Just as he felt that he was about to pass out from lack of oxygen, the guru pulled him out.
"Tell me," said the guru, "when you were under the water, what were you thinking?"
"Nothing!" cried the businessman. "I wasn't thinking anything! The only thing on my mind was that I needed air! I had to breathe!"
"Yes," said the guru."And when you strive for success the way you fought for breath, that is when you shall have it."
You cannot "sort of" hope for success, or think to yourself "it would be nice if I was successful..." You have to truly, deeply want it, refusing to make excuses, or say it's too hard. The drowning businessman didn't stop fighting for air because it was hard. He didn't think "well, this is taking too long..."
I don't think anyone here is incapable of success. Some might have to work harder, or longer, or face difficulties that others don't, but the ones who desperately want it, who have to have it, will.
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Some lessons are harder to learn than others.
That lesson was crystal clear, but not so easy to learn!!!!
Thank you for the reminder that if we truly want something, we need to be prepared to go for it with every ounce of our being.
Susan
It can be very hard... I've commented elsewhere that I know a number of people who claim they will do "whatever it takes" to be successful, but as soon as they see what's required, they complain that it's too hard, or that they can't do it for some reason. I understand that things can be pretty daunting, depending on what you're trying to accomplish, but minimal efforts yield minimal results.
Great post Craig! We can want anything, but in order to get what we want we sometimes have to get out of our heads and just do it. Time is irrelevant. If it took 10 years to be where you want to be is that not worth the trade off? Or we can make excuses and 10 years pass by with nothing to show.
Absolutely! That's definitely something people need to understand: the time is going to pass anyway. Do you want to use it to move toward your goals, or sit in place?
I know what I want, but I admit it took a while to get rolling.
It's been around for a while, but I figure a lot of the motivational stuff these days is just rewording of what came before, so we may as well go with a classic. :)
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good story post