By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
A wonderful story to help you remember when times are difficult.
Facing adversity, let me tell you a story. There was a young woman who was complaining to her father, who was a chef, about how awful her life was. Piss and moan, complain, be awful, that’s what she was doing for a long time. Her father, a chef, quietly went to the kitchen, waved her in, and started boiling three pots of water. Once they came to a boil, in one pot he put potatoes, in another pot he put eggs, in the third pot he put coffee beans. Daughter didn’t understand what was going on and continued on complaining.
At about 20 minutes later, Dad turns off the burners, empties the contents out. Looks at her and says, “What do you see?” She goes, “Potatoes, eggs, coffee.” Dad says, “Take another look. Now let’s see what you see.”
And you know, she takes a closer look and noted that the potatoes were soft. And the egg, after she breaks into it, finds hard-boiled eggs. And then she can, you know, sip coffee, which has a great smell to it. And she paused, having had her mood change, and said, “What does this mean?”
And Dad smiled and said, “The potato went in strong and hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak. The eggs were fragile with its thin outer coating and a shell protecting the liquid inside, and put it into boiling water, it becomes hard. And then, of course, the coffee transforms itself.”
So he smiled and said, “Things happen around us, things happen to us. But the only things that really matter is what happens within us. And thus, for you, when you’re facing difficult times, how are you going to respond to it? Are you going to become soft? Are you going to become hard, or are you going to transform yourself?”
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