Monday, April 26, 2010

Of Dragons and Men

On Sunday, while waiting for my gf to appear, I was spending the time at the MPH browsing some books. I picked up T.Harv's Secret of the Millionaire Mind from the shelf and started reading some chapters of it. It was a wonderful recap of what I had gathered from the book, since the last reading maybe like 1-2 years ago.

A phrase caught my attention. It goes something like this, "Rich men grows bigger than their problems. Poor men tries to solve their problems".

I took my eyes off the page and reflected on that line. It struck me like a chord that resonates within me...how true! The line simply means that if we grow bigger than the scope of our problems, than the problems cannot even harm us significant. In fact, some of the problems might not even be problems anymore.

This message drives in deeply, especially after I've watched the 3D version of How to Train a Dragon (btw, a wonderful and touching story). I watched in glee as the Vikings throw their catapults at this giant dragon that just leaps out of the screen. The boulders just bounced off its thick hide whereas earlier on, the same catapult just knocked off some of the smaller dragons.




Problems are relative, it seems. If you're a big dragon, you're not bothered by the relatively small stones. But if you're a small dragon, you're especially bothered by the relatively big stones, but quite immune to the smaller ones. This idea of growing bigger than your problems focuses the attention not on the problems, but on the one thing you can control - yourself.

That's quite refreshing to me. Some examples of how this works:


1. In the past, I tried not to take cabs because I always think that it costs several bus/mrt trips and I could save that few dollars. As I grow out of this problem by earning more and valuing my time more, I no longer worry about taking cabs. I might just take it when I'm tired and had a hard day, or simply to save time.


2. I used to fret when students cancel my lessons and drop off the tuition classes. But as I get more and more students, the percentage of cancellation drops as I grew 'bigger'. It doesn't affect me much anymore. In fact, sometimes I would be very happy as I can get to rest or spend more time with people I value.


Maybe it's time for me to re-read that book again after so long. Might want to add it to the list of books that I must read every year :)

8 comments :

JW said...

Hi LP...


2. I used to fret when students cancel my lessons and drop off the tuition classes. But as I get more and more students, the percentage of cancellation drops as I grew 'bigger'. It doesn't affect me much anymore. In fact, sometimes I would be very happy as I can get to rest or spend more time with people I value.



This part is so true... Applies to me nowadays too!

Royston said...

Hey LP,

Insightful and very true...i once read from somewhere...people who are meant for big things don't let small problems bother them.

AK71 said...

How to train your dragon (lah).

Createwealth8888 said...

Sorting Priorities in Life : What are your thoughts in 2010?

http://createwealth8888.blogspot.com/2009/12/sorting-priorities-in-life-what-are.html

la papillion said...

Hi JW,

Glad that you grew out of this problem :)

la papillion said...

Hi Royston,

It's from the book. You should read it too, if you find this one insightful. There are quite a few gems written in the book :)

Hey AK,

Wah, thanks for telling me :) I realised that I had been using 'tame' until my student told me today that it was 'train', haha :)

la papillion said...

Hi bro8888,

Very nice and insightful story..thanks for the link :)

AK71 said...

No problem, LP.
I corrected you when you commented in my blog too. heheheh ;-p