One day a school teacher wrote on the board the following:
9×1=7
9×2=18
9×3=27
9×4=36
9×5=45
9×6=54
9×7=63
9×8=72
9×9=81
9×10=90
When she was done, she looked to the students and they were all laughing at her, because of the first equation which was wrong, and then the teacher said the following,
“I wrote that first one wrong on purpose, because I wanted you to learn something important. This was for you to know how the world out there will treat you. You can see that I wrote RIGHT 9 times, but none of you congratulated me for it; you all laughed and criticized me because of one wrong thing I did. So this is the lesson…:
‘The world will never appreciate the good you do a million times, but will criticize the one wrong thing you do… But don’t get discouraged, ALWAYS RISE ABOVE ALL THE LAUGHTER AND CRITICISM. STAY STRONG.’
The above story gives a strong message and if we can imbibe we can help ourselves or people we mentor in roles of friend, teacher, parent or a team lead. Remembering below can help us
1. The destination of perfection is a illusion. No one can ever be perfect. The main thing is the agreement to try and learn new things.
2. When you see something wrong in a situation, challenge yourself to find some good. It is not easy as somehow naturally we are instinctive to sense negative than positives.
3. Humans are anxious and frightful beings. The survival theory of humans through the hardships from earlier eras suggest that we have evolved as naturally adapt to sense danger. Hence we tend to see the riskier(in softer terms negative) side first.
4. Pointing to negatives or guiding for corrections is not wrong, issue erupts when the teaching or discussion is only focused on the wrong things.
5. Follow the theory of “Sandwich Feedback”, while sharing your feedback to some person or situation. The method suggests to start feedback with some good points, followed by the areas that need improvement. Finally end the discussion with positive and encouraging note. Some may see it as farce, however the crude criticism can never motivate anyone.
6. To the last, please remember one thing, howsoever hard it might be for you to agree but everyone has their own good points.
Story reference : Internet feeds