How do you respond to adversity?
We face it every day in our personal lives and on our jewelry sales floor.
It comes when we least expect it.
When the timing could not be worse, but it comes anyway.
You can learn a great deal about an individual or staff when they are facing it.
Sometimes we have to pause for a moment and re-evaluate our position.
What are we? Are we . . .
A carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee?
You will never
look at a cup of
coffee the same
way again.
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life, and how things were so hard for her.
She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up.
She was tired of fighting and having to struggle every day.
It seemed as soon as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen.
She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire.
Soon the pots came to a boil.
In the first she placed carrots, in the second, she placed eggs and in the last, she placed ground coffee beans.
She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners.
She scooped the carrots out and placed them in a bowl.
She pulled the eggs out and placed them in another bowl.
Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a third bowl.
Turning to her daughter, she asked, “Tell me what you see.”
“Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” the daughter replied without emotion.
Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots.
She did and noted that they were soft.
The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it.
After pulling off the shell, she looked down on the hard-boiled egg.
Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee.
The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.
Turning to her mother she asked, “What does this mean?”
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water.
Each reacted differently.
The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting.
However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.
The egg had been fragile.
It’s thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, it inside becomes hardened.
The ground coffee beans were unique, however.
After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.
“Which are you?” she asked her daughter.
“When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?
Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?”
Are you the carrot that seems strong, but with adversity, you wilt and become soft?
Are you the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat?
Does your shell look the same, but on the inside you are bitter with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?”
Pressing further she asked, “Are are you like the coffee bean?
When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor.
If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you!”
In our store, or our personal life, when the hour is darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level?
Do you respond like a carrot, an egg, or the coffee bean?
Keep this in mind. The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything.
They just make the best of everything that comes along their way.
This short story has been around for a while.
I wish I knew the author to thank them for giving me the chance to look at life differently.
I posted it on this site in hopes that you can find some comfort in it, as I have.
We cannot stop adversity from coming.
We can only change how we respond to it.
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The host of “Inside the Jewelry Trade” Radio Show – Jewelry Business Strategist – President of Four Grainer LLC. Author of the business books “A Reason To Chant,” and “A Reason to Chant – Jewelry Trade Edition.” Rod lives in Atlanta with his wife and two almost-human cats.