I’m thrilled to be writing this post. “Why?”, you may ask. Well, it’s something special that I’ll be talking about at the end of the post.
Getting back to the post.
I haven’t told (or retold for that matter) a story in a long time, so we’re doing one today.
Once there was a man. No matter how hard he worked, he seemed to get nothing but failure in return. Frustrated with his life and seeing no other escape, he went to the forest to exile himself.
In the forest, he saw a hermit and asked him, “Give me one good reason to not quit. I’ve been working day and night but seeing no results.”
The hermit pointed towards something in front of them.
“See that bamboo tree?”, the hermit said.
“Yes”, the man nodded.
“When I had sown the bamboo seed, I took great care of it. I watered it, fertilised it and looked after it for weeks. Even made sure it got enough sunlight. But no matter what I did, the bamboo did not seem to grow for months. Much like your situation right now. Forget months, I repeated the same drill year over year for four years. For all those years, the plant didn’t grow, even by an inch. Yet I continued to water it.
By the fifth year, a tiny leaf sprouted out of the earth and within six months the sprout became 100 feet tall.
Now the right question to ask is whether the seed was lying dormant for the first four years, only to grow exponentially in the fifth?”
The man was too puzzled to respond.
Answering his own question the hermit said, “The correct answer would be that the seed wasn’t dormant. Even though there was no growth on the surface, there was growth nonetheless. It was growing beneath the surface. The plant was strengthening its foundation for exponential growth. Had it not taken its time to form the network underground, it wouldn’t be able to sustain the growth that was to come. Even though the actual bamboo plant above the ground looks like it has grown taller overnight, you and I know that’s far from the truth.”
The man understood the hermit’s point. The effort he was putting in at work wasn’t all in vain. It was actually the foundation for the success that would begin to sprout. He had learned the value of hard work and persistence that day.
This story is a great reminder that the results we see might not be immediate, but if we keep working hard and stay persistent, we’ll eventually see the fruits of our labour. People will see the ‘overnight success’ but only you’ll know the amount of time and effort invested in it.
Bottom Line
The bamboo tree is a parable to our own progress. Often, signs of progress are slow, frustrating and unrewarding at times.
But it is so worth it….especially if we can be patient and persistent.
P. S. As I had mentioned at the beginning of the post, there’s something I’m very excited about. And that thing is… *drumrolls*
THIS POST!
You might be wondering what’s so special about this post. Well, to be honest, this post specifically is nothing special in itself. But if we consider all of the posts that I’ve written to date, this one is my 100th post.
When I had begun writing my blog, 100 posts seemed to be an unimaginable task. It was as humongous as traversing entire India on foot – possible but difficult. Honestly, I had expected myself to fall off track after maybe 4 posts. But I’m glad I proved myself wrong, and I couldn’t be happier about that.
Even though I can see no bamboo growing above the ground, I can feel my foundation strengthening and expanding itself.
Few of you might know this, but in the beginning, I had decided to publish a book after I’d completed 100 posts. That book would be a compilation of 100 weeks of the rambling I had done 😀
At that time it was just wishful thinking, but now it’s very close to a reality that I will share with all of you and the world!
(Real-time update: I didn’t expect my hands to shiver from excitement while writing this but here we are)
That was all for my announcements. Thank you for reading my little experiments and experiences and contributing to them in one way or another. I’m forever grateful for you.