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:
Volume 1:
Tale 2: "Your Mind is Powerful"
Tale 4: "Being Compassionate"
Tale 6: "The Magic Pen"
Tale 8: "Confidence & Competence"
Tale 11:"I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done"
Tale 12: "Frog In The Well"
Tale 12: "Frog In The Well"
Volume 2:
Tale 3: Talking about army on paper.
Tale 4: Being Persistent
Tale 5: A Poet’s Writing Skills Decline
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