A small bird flies up and down a tree to look for worms. One day, a giant bird flies over at great altitude. The small bird laughs at the giant bird: “How stupid is that giant bird to waste so much energy to fly so high? I only need to fly a few ten feet and I have no more worry about hunger.” The small bird has no idea about the vision of the giant bird at that great altitude. There is nothing wrong to live a “small bird” life or a “giant bird” life. The important thing is we are satisfied with the way we live; no envy (feeling of discontented), no jealousy (resentment of someone’s achievements), and no arrogant. The small bird need not be arrogant and laugh at the giant bird, and the giant bird need not feel proud. After all, the giant bird is not free to fly whenever it wants; it has to wait for the wind to push it up into the sky. Anyone who needs to wait for something or someone is not free. No one can achieve great success without the helps from the right time (天), right space (地), and right people (人). We need to keep learning and have the intelligent to free us from distress (envy, jealousy, and arrogant) we inflict on ourselves through our ignorant. However, a wise man knows there are unlimited numbers of subjects that he cannot possibly learn all of them during his lifetime. He learns as much as he can, more than what he needs to learn, for the fun of it. In contrast, an arrogant man thinks there is nothing else that he needs to learn. (知不知，尚矣；不知不知，病矣。) The difference between the small bird and the giant bird is the altitude of their attitude (境界). When you are looking down from a great height, everything on the Earth surface seems small. When you are looking up from the Earth, everything in the sky seems small. Success or failure, nothing is big when you look at it from a great distance. There is no big deal. Don’t admire anyone. Don’t idolize anyone.
You can choose any occupation which you are happy, able, willing, and ready to undertake. You work to live, and not live to work, because you are not a robot. In your career, it is normal to be scolded by your boss, even if you are your own boss. Bosses always think they are right, and they always want you to do the right things, i.e. to make money for them or some other selfish purposes. If you desire to be not right, you will not be unhappy when your boss criticizes you. If you wish to be a witch or wizard, you will instead be happy when people call you a witch or wizard, like Harry Potter.
Don’t chase for success; success will chase you if you deserve to be successful. Chasing for success means you will stress yourself so much with many sleepless nights, burning midnight oil in order to achieve success. Your intelligence will work against you, rather than works for you. Not chasing success doesn’t mean you don’t work hard; you work as you should but you don’t think about personal profit or loss. If you are really intelligent, both cognitive and emotional, you will become a magnet which attracts successes. Anyway, success is not necessarily a good thing. It could be a punishment, and you get it if you deserve it. You need to feel alarmed because disaster may be hiding behind fortune (福乃祸之所伏). If you don’t get it, it is not a cause for disappointment. Instead, you should feel happy because you don’t get the punishment (祸乃福之所倚). Living a simple life will bring you more happiness.
The army of Qin state attacked Zhao state (in year B.C. 257). The Prime Minister of Zhao decided to send a delegation of 20 officers to persuade the King of Chu state to form an alliance to fight against Qin. He selected 19 suitable individuals and had one more vacancy. Mao Shui (毛遂) recommended himself for the position. The Prime Minister said: “A piercer put into the pocket will soon prick through the pocket and exposes its shape end. Why I never hear of your name?” Mao Shui replied: “I didn’t request to be put into the pocket until today. If I was put into the pocket earlier, the whole piercer would have pricked through already.” The Prime Minister then accepted him as the last member of the delegation. After a long discussion, the Prime Minister was unsuccessful to persuade the King of Chu. Finally, it was Mao Shui who managed to strike the right senses into the King’s mind and secured the alliance. One of the moral of this historical story is: sharpen your mind and you will be able to help when the opportunity presents itself. You don’t have to keep asking for a chance to show your usefulness. Success is where preparation and opportunity meet. After the successful defense against the army of Qin, Zhao state was attacked by army of Yan state the following year. The king of Zhao appointed Mao Shui as the army general to battle against the army of Yan. Mao Shui declined the appointment but was not approved by Zhao’s king. Zhao’s army was defeated. Mao Shui was ashamed of the failure and subsequently committed suicide. This is the kind of punishment which comes with success.
Zhu Ge Liang (诸葛亮) (A.D. 181 – 234) was a young man living in a small cottage during the Three Kingdoms period at the end of Han Dynasty. He was well known for his intelligent by his circle of friends. A warlord, Liu Bei (刘备), heard of his name from someone and went to the cottage three times to finally persuaded Zhu Ge Liang to help establish a strong force. Zhu Ge Liang was instrumental in the war against Cao Cao, establishing the Shu State (蜀国) as one of the Three Kingdoms for Liu Bei, and finally became the Prime Minister of Shu. Zhu Ge Liang didn’t chase for success, otherwise he would have taken initiative to join a stronger warlord like Cao Cao. It was Liu Bei who begged him to help, and he did what he could. The many successes came to him naturally because of his intelligent and hardworking. If he didn’t have the right intelligent but still desired for success, he would have suffered a lot of stress but achieved no success and probably lost his life in the civil war. At the age of 54, he died of illness due to heavy workload and insufficient sleep. Getting what you don’t deserve is unfortunate (不吉祥); don’t lose your happiness, hence your life, by desiring to get success which you don’t deserve. You have no life if you have no happiness.
RESILIENT KID 