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- Dear Younger Me
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Dear Reader,
Something I’ve admired about the best communicators, leaders, and influencers of all time is their ability to speak in frameworks and stories that make their main ideas memorable. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks allegorically throughout his I Have a Dream speech, using imagery of mountains, rivers, and valleys. Perhaps the most famous figure in history, Jesus Christ—whose life led to the formation of a religion followed by billions—found that whenever he was teaching his disciples, in conflict with religious leaders (or Satan), or preaching his message, he used a specific type of story: the parable.
Parables are fascinating because they take universal truths and embed them in a story that is both memorable and engaging for the audience.
People remember parables; because they remember them, they often remember the lesson. Parables also stand the test of time. Parables aren’t new creations; they’re old stories from different cultures or religions passed down from generation to generation.
Speaking and telling parables is essential if we want to improve our influence, our storytelling, and our memorability. I hope the following parables can be the foundation for your arsenal.
Parables—that’s the theme of this Three Thought Thursday.
A Fisherman’s Dilemma
A small boat docked at a small village, and a businessman on vacation spotted the fisherman unloading his catch. “Those are some great-looking fish,” the businessman said. “How long did it take you to catch them?”
“Not very long,” the fisherman replied.
Confused, the businessman asked, “Why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?”
The fisherman smiled and explained, “This is more than enough to meet my family’s needs.”
The businessman leaned in, clearly puzzled. “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The fisherman shrugged casually. “I sleep in, fish a little, play with my kids, and take a siesta with my wife. I head into the village in the evenings, drink with my friends, and play music. Life’s pretty full.”
The businessman interrupted, eager to correct him. “You’re doing it all wrong! I have an MBA, so I know how to make you rich.”
He laid out his plan: “Start by fishing longer every day. With the extra fish, you can sell more, make more money, and buy a bigger boat. With that, you can expand and buy a second boat, and a third, and soon you’ll have an entire fleet. You can negotiate directly with the processing plants or even open your own! Eventually, you’ll leave this little village and head to Mexico City, maybe even Los Angeles or New York! That’s where you’ll run your growing empire.”
“How long would this all take?” the fisherman asked.
“Probably 15, 20 years, maybe 30,” the businessman replied, excited by his own vision.
“And after that?” asked the fisherman.
The businessman grinned. “Ah, that’s the best part. Once your business is booming, you can start selling shares, making millions!”
“Millions?” asked the fisherman. “And then what?”
“Then,” said the businessman, “you can retire. You’ll move to a quiet coastal village, sleep in, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, and spend your evenings drinking and playing music with your friends!”
The fisherman discovered a universal truth by simply asking, "And then what?" The beauty of that question is that it expands your time horizon when making decisions. You’re forced to adopt a long-term mindset rather than a short-term one, and with a long-term mindset, you can discover, understand, and take action on what you truly desire.
Whenever you’re given an opportunity, always consider the long term.
The Wolves Within
A young boy was struggling with anger and asked his wise grandfather for advice.
“Grandfather, I feel so much anger toward someone who hurt me. How can I stop feeling this way?”
The elder sat the boy down and said, “Inside every person, there are two wolves constantly fighting. One is the wolf of darkness. He is full of anger, greed, envy, resentment, and fear. The other is the wolf of light. He is full of love, kindness, humility, generosity, and peace. This battle between the two wolves happens inside all of us.”
The boy, wide-eyed, asked, “But which wolf will win, Grandfather?”
The grandfather leaned closer and said softly, “The one you feed.”
It would be ignorant to say that not everyone has a good and bad side to them. We often idealize or diminish others by putting their goodness on a pedestal or casting stones upon their badness.
We’re about to enter an election season, and during this time, people tend to focus on the darkness in others.
Instead of constantly searching for that wolf of darkness, we should empower the wolf of light. After all, if we feed the world with love, kindness, humility, generosity, and peace, that wolf will win.
Feed the world goodness. And goodness will come of it.
Beauty from Brokenness
In a small village, a water bearer worked tirelessly, carrying water from a stream to his master’s house. He used two large pots, hung on either side of a pole he carried across his shoulders. One pot was perfect, always delivering a full portion of water, while the other pot had a crack along its side. Each day, the cracked pot arrived only half-full, and over time, the pot began to feel ashamed of its imperfection.
One day, the cracked pot spoke to the water bearer as he was filling it at the stream. “I’m sorry,” the pot said. “I’m ashamed of myself. I have been cracked for years and leak water all the way back to your master’s house. You work so hard, but because of my flaw, you don’t get the full value of your effort.”
The water bearer paused, smiled, and said, “As we walk back today, I want you to notice the flowers along your side of the path.”
So, as they walked back, the pot saw the most beautiful flowers growing along its side of the path, while the other side was bare. The cracked pot was amazed but still didn’t understand.
When they reached the house, the water bearer said, “Did you notice that the flowers only grow on your side of the path? That’s because I’ve known about your crack all along, and I used it for good. I planted seeds along your side of the path, and every day, you water them as we walk back. Without you being just the way you are, there wouldn’t be this beauty in the world.”
The cracked pot was no longer ashamed. It had learned that, even with its imperfections, it had still been able to contribute something wonderful.
You can take many lessons from this parable. I want to focus on the relationship between the pot and the water bearer. The pot was down in the dumps, humiliated by its shortcomings—feeling it couldn’t serve its water bearer to the best of its ability.
But rather than tossing away the cracked pot and replacing it with a new one, the water bearer saw something beautiful in the imperfection. And flowers came of it, literally.
Find individuals—usually teachers, mentors, or guides—who can speak life into you and leverage everything about you to positively impact the world. These are the people you should constantly search for and surround yourself with.
Find the water bearer to help you produce flowers.
I hope we can all use these parables as a foundation and motivation to learn and tell even more.
Grateful for you,
Tommy
P.S. If you learned something new in this edition, can you do me a favor? Forward this letter to a friend who may be interested. I’d really appreciate it.