Have You Had Some Bad Luck???

I love Zen Stories and one of my favorites is the story about the Old Chinese Man who had one horse and one son. The horse broke out of the corral one day and took off for the hill country. His neighbors came around that night and chattered, “Your horse got away… what bad luck!” “Why,” the old Chinese Man countered, “How do you know it’s bad luck?” Sure enough, the next night the horse came back to his familiar corral for the usual feeding and watering, leading twelve wild stallions with him. The farmer’s son saw the thirteen horses in the corral, slipped out and shut the gate behind them. Suddenly the old man had thirteen horses instead of none. The neighbors heard the good news and came back chattering, “Oh, you have thirteen horses, what good luck!” And the old Chinese answered, “How do you know it’s good luck?”

A few days later his strong young son was out in the corral trying to break one of the wild stallions only to be thrown off and break a leg in two places. His neighbors came back and passed another hasty judgment: ‘Your son broke his leg? What bad luck!” And the wise father answered again, “How do you know it’s bad luck?” Sure enough, a few days later a Chinese war lord came through and conscripted every able-bodied young man, taking them off to war, never to return again. But the young man couldn’t go because of the broken leg.

Only God is wise enough to know what’s really good luck and bad luck. Remember this story next time you have a difficulty in your sales career.