Weekly Snapshot: The Empty Boat
Hard times are just life's current. The empty boat story reminds us there's often no malicious intent behind setbacks—just natural drift. Non-reactive acceptance fosters inner peace and easier recovery.
Life throws curveballs. Plans fall through. Life can humble you easily.
It is completely acceptable. It comes as part of a complete package that we call the ups and downs of life. During these moments, one might find oneself in a defensive position, filled with anger and frustration. Again, this behavior is completely understandable. It’s completely human.
Usually, the best course of action is non-reactive. It is to accept the reality of the situation and work towards finding a way out. It is without blame or emotional response. The anger and frustration often derive from ego and assumption of malicious intent, i.e., the world is out to get me.
Whenever you are faced with such a situation, and trust me, you will be tested more than once in your life, just remember the ancient Chinese story about an empty boat. The story describes a person in a boat who becomes angry when their boat gets bumped, only to realize that the other boat was completely empty. It drifted because of the current. There was no malicious intent. All of a sudden, the man had nothing to channel his inner anger and frustration. There was no need for the two feelings to arise.
The lesson?
More often than not, hard times are just life’s current. There is no one to blame nor any situation to dissect. It just is.
Treating hard times as such fosters inner peace and frees one from needless frustration. It makes overcoming hard times easier.
💪 Wins of the week
- Succesfully closed two new deals - welcoming our new cohort of enterprise customers next week.
🧐 Challenges & Learnings
- Keeping composure in the face of tough times is difficult. One is susceptible to making mistakes in desperation that should be avoided at all costs.
- Couldn’t film my YouTube video - the inertia is too real.
🎯 Goals for Next Week
- Pitch investors - get closer to closing the round.
- Record my YouTube video….
- Close two more enterprise deals.
📖 My Readings
I’m reading Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg. It has great insights into the human language and human connection. I’d recommend reading this book if you truly want to build a connection with someone solely based on a conversation.
✍️ Quote of the Week
Stanley Druckenmiller after losing $3 billion on tech stocks during the 2000 bubble:
"I didn't learn anything. I already knew I wasn't supposed to do that".
