One Sunday it was snowing heavily and no one turned
up for the services at the church. Only a herder of cows reached in the
freezing snow. The pastor waited for some more time and eventually said, ‘Let’s
cancel as it is only two of us!’
The herder said, ‘When I go to feed my cows, I
whistle out for them to come. Most of the time, all the cows turn up. But
sometimes, only one turns up and that time I will make sure that I don’t leave
that cow hungry’.
The pastor realized his mistake and started to
deliver the services for close to two hours. He thanked the herder for teaching
him a valuable lesson, ‘It’s our duty to finish it, no matter how big or small
the need is... Hope you had a good two hours’.
The herder replied, ‘Well when I go to feed my herd
and if only one turns up for the food. I will make sure that I don’t force it
to eat all the food I bought for the whole herd’.
Two lessons emerge from the story: don’t delay the
start and don’t delay the end. The first is about rewarding the ones who come
on time. The second is about not making it worse by being long winded and
ignoring the needs and wants of those you deal with.
Too often, so many of us delay the start, waiting
for late comers. And instead of brevity, we choose to prolong the misery by force
feeding. We must choose to be on time as well as be time conscious, especially
about the time of the audience.
Don’t delay the start, respect the early one
Don’t delay the end, so everyone has fun!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
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