ArtShine: Tales My Mother Told Me... Tale 10 "Chicken scratches for what it gets"

Friday, May 4, 2012

Tales My Mother Told Me... Tale 10 "Chicken scratches for what it gets"

Welcome to tales my Mum told me...

Tale 10: "Chicken Scratches For What It Gets"

This tale took place when I was 12 years old. We were living in a refugee camp on one of the Indonesian islands called Galang after our departure from our homeland Vietnam. I guessed at the time everyone who lived in the camp were all hoping one day their names would be called out through the announcement so that we could resettle in a new country like Australia, USA or some other European country. We used to call these countries "The new home of opportunities and freedom".

While we were in the camp my parents met this little old lady and she was a clairvoyant of some kind and she offered to do a reading on Dad. This old lady had an old thick book with lots of illustrations just like the one shown here. This book was quite old, and even now, I have not seen anything like it. Mum and Dad called this reading process as "The open book reading".

How this book worked was that the old lady recited some quotes and she asked Dad for his date of birth and what Dads intention was to find out from the reading. Then she closed the book, asked Dad to close his eyes, to focus and to be present so as to get the connection with the book. He then had to flick through the pages of the book and open it. So when Dad opened the book, it landed on a double page with a scene of a rooster, a hen and the chicks scratching along the soil for food with a quote "Chicken scratches for what it gets"

So I asked mum "What was the meaning behind the rooster, the hen and the chicks?"

"Well in the illustration, the rooster is your Dad, I am the hen and those little chicks are you and your brothers & sisters” Mum said.

"And...?" I asked anxiously.

"Your dad will take care of us when we settle in Australia and he will provide for us with food and a home just like the rooster did, leading the way and searching for food to take care of its family. The key message from the reading was your dad is a survivor and a hard worker. You can put your dad in any place and he will find ways to earn a living and to support us. We are his main priority. Just like the rooster you can put it in deserted places and he'll use the scratching method to uncover "buried treasures" from the soil such as bugs and small food bits that other chickens may have missed" explained my mother.

So how do we apply this quote "Chicken scratches for what it gets" into your business?

Let's have a look at several examples:

Just say if you are a wholesaler of a giftware business and you rely on your sales agents. A good sales agent would regularly visit his or her clients and build the relationship no matter whether the economy is booming or not. Just like a chicken, it needs to do its fair amount of scratching in order to find food to save him and its family from hunger. So in your business, it won't be in good shape if you're not prepared to do the hard yards and generate leads and sales opportunities. You too must do a certain of amount scratching. The more you scratch…the more you get in return.

If the sales agents are not hungry for sales then they will miss the sales opportunity to an active sales agent who is prepared to do a great amount of scratching. This agent will reap the sales and establish a closer relationship with his clients.

The second example is as a business owner you need to maintain a positive mindset with persistence and determination. Just like the chickens, they are focused, they persevere and are determined. They know that the only way for them to find food is by doing a certain amount of scratching and they won't give up until they find food bits in the soil and if they pay more attention they will find more food than those chickens that were not as determined and focused.

Last example is as a business owner, sometimes we can get too comfortable and complacent. Our business could go into auto pilot where we focus only "in" our business and not doing the strategy planning such as working "on" and "above" our business.

A business needs to be nurtured and consistently fine tuned. Working "in" your business is a given, this is where you make your products, create new ranges, see clients and generate sales. However working "on" and "above" your business are the two important ingredients that lots of business owners are not doing enough of. Working "on" is where you plan to grow your business and working "above" your business will help you to take your business to the next level. Sometimes we spend too much time working "in" our business and working hard like a donkey that we totally forget the reason why we wanted our own business in the first place. This is how working "above" your business will help you tune into your desire and passion so you can be on track to achieve your dreams and desires.

So my question to you is "Are you doing enough scratching in your business?"

Tune in for next week Tale Eleven...

"I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done" - Buddha

More Tales My Mother Told Me...

Volume 1:

Tale 1: "When You Help One, You Help Thousands"

Tale 2: "Your Mind is Powerful"

Tale 3: "The Importance of Self Understanding"

Tale 4: "Being Compassionate"

Tale 5: "Finding the Inner Calmer In You"

Tale 6: "The Magic Pen"

Tale 7: "Here comes the Fair- Weather Friend"

Tale 8: "Confidence & Competence"