Don’t Give Up—Maybe the Horse Will Sing!

 

Olena Bohovk@pexels

Life often places us in difficult situations, where factors beyond our control seem to dictate our fate. In those moments, the key is to remain calm and keep hope alive. Wise mentors often use metaphors to teach us resilience. One such example is the duck, which glides serenely across the water while its feet paddle furiously beneath the surface. Yet, not everyone can master such calmness in the face of adversity.

There’s an ancient tale that captures the essence of staying composed and optimistic in challenging times—a story that has echoed across cultures and generations.

A man, wrongfully accused, stood before an emperor, facing a death sentence. Knowing his fate seemed sealed, he proposed an audacious deal: “Give me one year and one day, and I will teach your horse to sing. If I fail, you may take my life.”

The emperor, intrigued by the man’s confidence, agreed. Other prisoners mocked him, saying, “Why didn’t you beg for mercy? You’ve only delayed the inevitable.”

The man, calm and composed, replied, “Anything can happen in a year. The king might die. The horse might die. I might die. Or perhaps, the horse will sing.”

This story, passed down through various cultures, speaks to the power of hope and wit. It reminds us that even when the odds seem insurmountable, time holds the potential for unexpected outcomes.

Why It Matters The phrase “maybe the horse will sing” has become a metaphor for holding on to possibility, no matter how improbable it may seem. It’s a lesson in resilience and optimism, urging us to focus on what could happen instead of succumbing to despair.

So, the next time we find ourselves stuck in a tough spot, let’s think of the man and his audacious deal. Maybe it’s not about whether the horse sings or not—it’s about keeping the door open for possibilities. After all, who knows what a year might bring?

I have first posted this on my LinedIn profile - LinkedIn Post

The motives behind Motivation

The motives behind Motivation was published by me on the Linked In.

The global economy follows a pattern of peaks and troughs and the mantra to survive those inclement phases of recession is to stay prepared in advance. Readiness calls for periodic retrospection or self-appraisal followed by an honest endeavor to upskill ourselves. There is an old saying "if you aren't growing, you're dying" and this drive for growth often is what separates the outstanding from the adequate.

The thought of “further development” invariably annoys us at the beginning and a common question that haunts us is “why bother about further development within our busy daily schedule?” A gentleman once confided that he would rather be investing that resources for the future of his children.

But the harsh reality of present day life is that no jobs are permanent. Over the past decades, we have witnessed numerous profit making business models employing thousands around the globe going bankrupt or venturing into a totally new arena.  Another fact is that majority of today’s top ranking companies are less than 20 years old, thanks to evolving technologies. Continuous training of employees including the managers in certain industries are no longer an option but a necessity.

Professional membership to institutions such as PMI and CIOB insists on tangible continuous development. These are quantified through “Professional Development Units” and “Continuous Development Units” respectively. Survival therefore comes only with meticulous self-planning and happenstance could only take us so far.

Self-development is complicated to categorize considering the potential to improve one of our many aspects, be it persona, character, Knowledge or skill. But in the context of professional improvement, it has to be measurable and it is more of a process rather than being a one-time endeavor.

The dilemma is that once personal time along with top dollar is spent, it’s not unusual for Individuals to equate self-developmental to promotion or pay rise. Senior professionals see improvement from a broader perspective while the junior leaders find their motivation in short term gains. After in-depth discussions with the peers, it was obvious that the factors which inspire professionals are very diverse as listed below:

• Increase the chance of promotion or a pay rise
• Attain mastery of a skill set as mastery provides increased autonomy
• Gain more control over work within one’s own organization or team
• Develop skills that may indirectly be of value in difficult times such as recessions and layoffs
• Seek avenues outside the narrower focus of their given career field
• Self-direct learning to broaden knowledge within one’s area of interest
• The drive to evolve as a better human being and increase individual resilience
• Create the potential to discover new areas of interest

Gulf talent (2016) provides an interesting insights into the postgraduate study trend in the Middle East and the percentage of willing individuals is surprisingly very high. Even though this trend is triggered by the instability within the job market, the reasons for further development aligns well with my personal findings. Following are few graphical excerpts:

Trompe-l'œil as defined by Wiki is French for "deceive the eye". This is a technique of art which uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions. A typical trompe-l'œil mural might depict a window, door, or hallway, intended to suggest a larger room.

This is also written as trompe l’oeil in English and is thought to have originated much earlier than our documented history. Examples are found in murals from Greek and Roman times.

About a decade ago, I was involved in a project for one of the royals and that was my introduction to the world of trompe l’oeil. We had crew of artist sent out from our Rome office to do carry out the task. It was the female bedroom of the suite in his so to say winter getaway. The idea was to have the drapes painted on the walls to match those installed on the windows. I was the architect overseeing the commissioning of the fit-out and was quite pleased to be part of the overall experience. While leave some imagery from that job here, I will save the description of its application process for another time and place.

There is a popular story of deceptive painting involving two renowned Greek painters from around 464 BC. Zeuxis once produced a still life so real that it convinced the birds to peck at the grapes in there. Parrahasius, a rival artist later invited Zeuxis to judge one of his paintings after pulling back a tattered curtains in his study. But when Zeuxis tried, he could not, as the curtains too were part of that Parrhasius's painting. This also reminds me of our own mythological story of Mahabharata. When the Pandevas invited their cousins Kauravas to their new palace, Duryodhan had trouble differentiating real from illusions and making a clown of himself in the process.