Sunday, June 2, 2013

The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg

I am sure that everyone must have red this story,The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg, An Aesop Fable, in their childhood and still remember it. No idea, how many years before I have red this but is still crystal clear each and every sequence in my mind, the most important scene, the farmer holding knife with blood on it lamenting on his greed.

All these years, it was just a story for me or rather I would say the length and breadth of my view on the moral of the story was very less. Yes , I am enlightened with a new perception now and hence thought of sharing.

One day I came across this story once again, long after I red it during my childhood. The perception during those days are highly influenced by innocence each one of us carry with, which slowly fades away day by day in the name of progress and growth.

And now, when I came across this story once again, it was quiet natural for me to look at the moral of the story from an entirely different angle and I could relate very well with the modern lifestyle.

I found a new meaning! Rather I learned the power of perception, its variance from person to person, things to things and place to place. It gives each one of us different meaning on the same thing, whatever the time you lives in, based on your life experience and your observation power. I tried to associate the Farmer, the Goose and Golden egg to something else to understand what the writer really mean by the Farmer, the Goose and Golden egg to the 21st century.

I was shocked to realise that it, the farmer, symbolise each and every one of us who doesn't care about the goose(surprisingly ourselves!!) which gives golden egg for us but with greed, exploiting the goose more and more and eventually take it death bed and regrets.

How?

On my day to day life I see a lot of people who do race like a rat to make money as much as possible even though what they earn is good enough for their survival. The more they make, the more they look for - Greed. They push their limits, they stretch their work time, they spend nights and weekends with an ego tag "hard worker"; they sacrifice their good moments with family; ignoring everything else than money; spoiling their health - both mental and physical. All these things they do because they are greedy for money  - the Golden egg. And still not satisfied with what they get and want to become rich very quick as the Farmer, killing themselves slowly.

Having such a perception is not only important as an individual or an employee(goose), it is quiet very important perception required by the employer(farmer) too in the modern work life.

One day they realise that they have lost everything. Their family, their health and the ability to work more. The flow of money ( golden egg) stops there. They killed the the Goose and who is that Goose? Themselves. By the time they realise it, the time will be too late, the Goose is done.

And as I mentioned earlier, this perception varies from person to person, place to place and time to time and even for the same person at different stages. Knowing yourself and having the awareness on where to draw the lines will keep you going.
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Motivation and Reference to write this:
"The 7 habits of Highly Effective People - Franklin Covey"
"The faster you live the faster you will die"
"The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg"
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-04-25/news/38817258_1_depressed-workers-nimhans-mental-health