King in the Land of the Blind
Erasmus said, “In the land of the blind, a one-eyed person becomes king.” In a sense, this statement also applies to the concept of success. What we call success is actually related to how little the features we have are found in our environment. The results we achieve in life are closely related to how many people in the world the benefit we create affects the lives of and how few or many people can demonstrate this value in the same way.
How many people in the world can do the work we do with the same value and take our place? Or how uniquely can we do what we do? If we think that there are many people who can take our place and do our job as well as we do, the rewards we receive at the end of that job are just as limited. It is of course very important to make our work unique and to strive for the best. Besides, it is just as necessary to insist on a unique and little chosen path.
It is important that the ladder of life is solid, as well as that it rests against a correct wall. It can be very painful to realize after climbing the ladder that it is leaning against the wrong wall. Most of us strive to make unique and solid stairs throughout our lives. However, watching the view from above will be a reward for those who dare to climb the right wall, even if the ladder in their hands is mediocre.
A woodpecker can reach his food by hitting the right tree the right number of times. If he had hit each tree several times, it would not have been possible. Its unique feature is not the sharpness of its eyes or its strong claws, but its ability to strike its beak hard and fast. The woodpecker achieves results by staying true to his own nature, just as we should.
It is very important to get to know ourselves better and to realize which of our features matches the needs of the environment. This requires a two-way awareness process. The process of both an internal awareness and an external awareness of our environment.
It is important to reveal the unique feature in us and to insist on its development in the right direction. Like the one-eyed king in the land of the blind, there are places in the world where even traits that are possessed and seen as weaknesses are valuable. One eye is enough to see it.
