Change Your Thinking, Change Your Future

Yesterday I listened to an impactful speech by a successful local entrepreneur. His speech was so impactful that I have listened to it today for the second time. In his speech, he shared 2 very funny, and yet thought-provoking, stories which effectively relate to the title of this post.


Story #1

A rich man went to see a wise old man to seek for advice. He asked the old man, "Tell me, how can I be happy in life?" The old man said, "Listen carefully. In order to be happy in life, everything that you see has to be in green colour." And so the rich man thanked the old man for his advice and left.

Three months later, the rich man had indeed become happy with his life and wanted to repay the wise old man for his advice. So he invited the old man over for a dinner at his place. When the old man arrived, he was so surprised to see that everything at the rich man's place was green in colour: the whole bungalow was painted in green, the BMW was green in colour, all the furniture in the house were green, and even the maids were wearing green uniforms.

The old man couldn't believe what he saw, and asked, "How much did you spend to change all these things into green?"

The rich man replied, "I spent a total of $500,000 on all these. And it really works! Thank you so much for your advice."

Surprisingly, the old man reacted by scolding the rich man, "You're so stupid. Why did you spend so much money to change everything into green? You could have just spent $50 on a pair of green glasses, and when you wear it, everything will become green lah! Haiyo.."

The morale of this story - everything in your life will start to change once you decide to adopt a new perspective in looking at things. You don't have to change others, you just need to change your thinking.


Story #2

Once upon a time, there lived a hat seller in a small village. One day, the hat seller felt tired and decided to take a short nap under a tree. He slept wearing one of his hat, while the rest of the hats were left on the ground beside him.

After resting for a while, the hat seller woke up and was shock to see that all his hats were gone. He looked up the tree only to realise that the monkeys were wearing his hats. He was so desperate to retrieve all his hats, and tried everything from shouting to hurling stones at the monkeys, but nothing seemed to work.

Out of frustration, he took off his hat and threw it hard on the ground. To his amazement, the monkeys also mimicked his action and threw all the hats on the ground. Monkey see, monkey do. And so he quickly kept all the hats and left the place.

30 years later, the hat seller had a grandson, who also ended becoming a hat seller like him. (Monkey see, monkey do..) One day, the grandson took a nap under a tree and carelessly left his hats on the ground beside him. When he woke up, he was shocked to discover that the monkeys had taken his hats.

Then he recalled the lesson that his grandpa had taught him. So he took of his hat, and threw it hard onto the ground. But to his surprise, the monkeys did not throw the hats down this time.

Just as he was about to become panic, one of the monkeys shouted from the trees, "Hello, you think you're the only one who has a grandfather ah?"

The morale of the story - monkey see, monkey do. Even the monkeys know that times have changed and they have to become smarter and not repeat past mistakes in order to survive. What about us?


And here's another thought-provoking piece from his speech.

Do you know why people say "bless you" when someone sneezes?

Back in the very old days when medical science was not as advanced, people used to believe that:

• Sneezing is an early symptom of the bubonic plague, which kills about two thirds of infected humans within 4 days.

• A person's soul could be thrown from their body when they sneezed.

• Sneezing opens the body to invasion by the Devil.

• The heart stops beating during a sneeze.

Which was why people say the words "bless you" to a person who sneeze, in a hope that God would bless the person from the terrible happenings above.

Nowadays, with medical science more advanced than ever, why do we still say "bless you" when someone sneezes? Is it just purely following a tradition without knowing the actual purpose of doing so?

The morale - do not follow blindly what others do. If we blindly follow what the majority of people do, we'll end up getting what the majority of people get.


Again, here's the message:

When you change your thinking, you can change your future.