Lessons from Life

The past few days have helped me realise the importance of encouragement.I guess it all started with an email forward which had a story of an old man asking for feedbacks on his painting from a renouned artist Dante Gabriel Rosatti. When Dante looked at the recent paintings done by the old person he realises that they are not a very great work in art and returns them back without any feedback fearing that the telling him the truth might disappoint the old man. Next the old man shows the artist some more paintings which really impress Dante. Dante gets excited and says " Excellent! This boy has real talent. He should be given every help and encouragement in his career as an artist. He has a great future if he will work hard and stick to it"

Hearing this, the old man slowly replies "It is me - 40 years ago. If only I had heard your praise then! For you see, I got discouraged and gave up - too soon."

Among all the forwards with scenery,jokes cracked at bosses in the corporate world and others, this one is certainly different.

Retrospecting, I have so many happenings in my life till now, for which I am grateful to. They have moulded me into the person that I am right now. But this story made me think on how many ventures I have given up too soon fearing negative feedbacks or no feedbacks at all. Many of them!

I am reminded of the huge part that the 'society' plays in our lives. How nice would it be if each one of us are made to live only with positive people who can encourage us and someone whom we can encourage with all our heart!!There would be no ego, jealousy etc etc. But,I think I am being too idealistic here!

Also,I am not trying to blame others for what I have missed or lost. I shall count my own faults and mistakes too.

How would our lives be, had we grabbed every single opportunity we got and strived to make the best of it! Surprisingly, this doesn't sound idealistic. Probably because it is left to our choice and will, and the drive to excel comes from within us, irrespective of what others think!

It's time to wake up and make the best use of our talents and the opportunities. May each of us have the courage and conviction to follow our dreams!