What it lacking in modern society. 
A thought provoking story and definitely a learning lesson for all of us.

Story of Appreciation

One young academically excellent person went to apply for a managerial position in a big company.

He passed the first interview, the director did the last interview, made the last decision.

The director discovered from the CV,  that the youth's academic result is excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, never has a year he did not score.

The director asked, "Did you obtain any scholarship in school?" and the youth answered "none".

The director asked, “Is it your father who pay for your school fees?" the youth answered, my father passed away when I was one year old, it is my mother who paid for my school fees.

The director asked, " Where did your mother work?" the youth answered, my mother worked as cloth cleaner. 

The director requested the youth to show his hand, the youth showed a pair of hand that is smooth and perfect to the director.

The director asked, “Did you ever help your mother wash the clothes before?" The youth answered, "Never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books, furthermore, my mother can wash cloths faster than me".

The director said, "I have a request - when you go back today, go and help to clean your mother's hand, and then see me tomorrow morning".

The youth felt that his chance of landing the job is high; when he went back, he happily wanted to clean his mother's hand.  His mother feet strange, happy but mixed with fear, she showed her hand to the kid.

The youth cleaned his mother's hand slowly, his tear drop down as he did that.  It is first time he found his mother's hand is so wrinkled, and there are so many bruises in her hand. Some bruises incite pains so strong that shivered her mother's body when cleaned with water.

This is the first time the youth realized and experienced that it is this pair of hand that washed the clothes everyday to earn him the school fees, the bruises in the mother's hand is the price that the mother paid for his graduation and academic excellence and probably his future.

After finishing the cleaning of his mother hand, the youth quietly cleaned all remaining clothes for his mother.

That night, mother and son talked for a very long time.

Next morning, the youth went to the director's office.

The director noticed the tear in the youth's eye, asked: " Can you tell me what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?"

The youth answered, " I cleaned my mother's hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes'

The director asked, "Please tell me your feeling."

The youth said, "Number 1, I knew what is appreciation; without my mother, there would not the successful me today. Number 2, I knew how to work together with my mother, then only I can realize how difficult and tough to get something done.  Number 3, I knew the importance and value of family relationship".

The director said, "This is what I am asking, I want to recruit a person that can appreciate the help of other, a person that knew the suffering of others to get thing done, and a person that would not put money as his only goal in life to be my manager. You are hired".

Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates, every employees worked diligently and in a team, the company's result improved tremendously.

Moral of the story:

A child who has been protected and habitually given whatever he did, he will develop "entitlement mentality" and always put himself first. He is ignorant of his parent's effort. When he start to work, he will assume every people must listen to him, and when he become a manager, he would never know how suffering his employee and always blame others. For this kind of people, he can have good result, may be successful for a while, but eventually would not feel sense of achievement, he will grumble and full of hatred and fight for more. 

If we are this kind of protective parent, did we love the kid or destroy the kid?

You can let your kid live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn piano, watch a big screen TV. But when you are cutting grass, please let them experience it. After a meal, let them wash their plates and bowls together with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in a right way. 

You want them to understand, no matter how rich their parent are, one day their hair will grow gray, same as the mother of that young person.  The most important thing is your kids learn how to appreciate the efforts and experience the difficulties and learn the abilities to work with others to get things done.

Quotes for the day:

"Without filters we wander aimlessly through life. . . . We are simply out at sea drifting from one distraction to another. Core values create boundaries. Boundaries create focus, and focus minimizes drift."
*-- John G. Blumberg

"When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier." 
*-- Roy Disney

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