Lessons from academic achiever
A 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 achievements were excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, never had a year when he did not score.
The director asked, “Did you obtain any scholarships in school?” the youth answered “none”.
The director asked, “Was it your father who paid for your school fees?” The youth answered, “My father passed away when I was one year old, it was my mother who paid for my school fees.”
The director asked, “Where did your mother work?” The youth answered, “My mother worked as a clothes cleaner.” The director requested the youth to show his hands. The youth showed a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect.
The director asked, “Have you ever helped 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 clothes faster than me.”
The director said, “I have a request. When you go back today, go and
clean your mother’s hands, and then see me tomorrow morning.”
The youth felt that his chance of landing the job was high. When he went back, he happily requested his mother to let him clean her hands. His mother felt strange, happy but with mixed feelings, she showed her hands to the kid.
The youth cleaned his mother’s hands slowly. His tear fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother’s hands were so wrinkled, and there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that his mother shivered when they were cleaned with water.
This was the first time the youth realized that it was this pair of hands that washed the clothes everyday to enable him to pay the school fee. The bruises in the mother’s hands were the price that the mother had to pay for his graduation, academic excellence and his future.
After finishing the cleaning of his mothers hands, the youth quietly washed all the 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 tears in the youth’s eyes, 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 feelings.”
The youth said, “Number 1, I know now what is appreciation. Without my mother, there would not be the successful me today. Number 2, by working together and helping my mother, only I now realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done. Number 3, I have come to appreciate the importance and value of family relationship.”
The director said, “This is what I am looking for to be my manager. I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the sufferings of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life. You are hired.”
Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates. Every employee worked diligently and as a team. The company’s performance improved tremendously.
A child, who has been protected and habitually given whatever he wanted, would develop “entitlement mentality” and would always put himself first. He would be ignorant of his parent’s efforts. When he starts work, he assumes that every person must listen to him, and when he becomes a manager, he would never know the sufferings of his employees and would always blame others. For this kind of people, who may be good academically, may be successful for a while, but eventually would not feel sense of achievement. He will grumble and be full of hatred and fight for more. If we are this kind of protective parents, are we really showing love or are we destroying the kid instead?
You can let your kid live in a big house, eat a good meal, have the latest toys or games 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 parents are, one day their hair will grow grey, same as the mother of that young person. The most important thing is your kid learns how to appreciate the effort and experience the difficulty and learns the ability to work with others to get things done.
Source: The internet
Let me first thank you brother for sharing this wonderful but educative article, this massage before it goes to all future leaders and newly cerebrated graduates, it has a special significance to me, the article deserves full attention if one to be a successful father/mother (leader) in both worlds.
There is a common mistake most of us fall in, we easily but unjustifiably forget from where we've come from, the people who struggled, having sleepless nights for us to be where we're now. Your article brother exactly narrates or tells reality on the ground.
You've presented your article as if you're aware of my long journey to this success, and that you're trying to remind me of that past.
From your article, I've gained a lot of lessons; it really happens that we forget all the atrocities others faced for our sake, one of the great lessons from this article is, it prepares good and responsible fathers/mothers what they must do or be towards own families and whole community at large, and how best we can bring-up our children, and live by example.
To be a grateful person is a blessing from Almighty Allah, the one who is not grateful to the contributions others did to his/her success, instead turns a blind eye, absolutely such kind of people mails bad signals to the community. Recognition of contributions others did, be it our own parents, organizations or any other sources, is one part of being grateful, and Allah advocates us in the Holy Qur'an to be grateful so that we can still be given more good from Him.
Last but not least, I would like to express my thanks to you for sharing this educative and well-timed advice, jazaka-Allah khaira for enlighten to me in particular and to others in general, really I (we) have learned a lot.
Many thanks to my parents and all family members for their support and well done job, I don’t take this for granted, only Allah knows suitable rewards for your great task.
Lastly my great pleasure and thanks goes to all organization(s)/individuals who contributed in one way or the other to my success; you did all this for the sake of Allah's countenance, may He reward you in abundance ameen thumma ameen.