Give a man a fish

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Chinese Proverb

As I am nearing my ORD, I can feel a sense of mixed feelings within me. I feel a sense of gladness that now, I'm able to start doing what I always wished to, to further improve myself, yet, I at the same time feel a sense of helplessness, as if the world now is too big and too difficult for me. The army has given me too many a fish.

I could do the worst job in army, and no matter what, get my small pay sum every month. Albeit little, I felt I could do anything myself with that small sum of money. Now, I know, I will not get the small sum of money anymore, and it's time to go for work. If I don't, I'll have no money.

There can be no more evil thing than feeding a man for free. There is no tamer animals than lions in cage in zoos. Overtime, they've lost their resourcefulness. They're used to being fed, doing nothing. Their children will expect the same treatment. So we practically got unnatural animals in our zoos. Give them ample freedom and get them to get their own food, and they're going to starve to death.

That is what I feel. That's why I'm afraid. That's because, for just a short period of 2 years, I've never thought about change, NEVER. I've never seen properly, what if this money expected and received due fully monthly will stop? I've stopped seeing and expecting change.

The only thing constant in life is change. Many a parables, and short stories have given excess insights to it. Go fish! Who moved my Cheese? are all a but a few books explaining the dangers of getting into expectations that nothing will change.

Why however am I afraid? If just 2 years of conditioning can make me have so much fear, I'm gonna forever be stuck the same way when I venture out in the business world, where once again, I'll be resistant to change. Yet change is not totally a bad thing. If there wasn't change of industries from the steel to the automobile to the electronics, would there be mass production of ipods for us today? Would cars be mass-manufactured? Would cars today be so cheaply obtained?

There can be no more danger than not expecting change and taking that stand all the way. It is more possible to catch a wise wild rabbit slowly step by step building a cage to lure it in than it is to catch it with a cage and a bait suddenly put there. Let me share with you this parable.

Once there was this wise rabbit living in the woods, which had caused problems to the nearby farmers. The farmers wanted to catch the rabbit, but however they tried, it was just too fast for them. They came together and discussed, and decided to build a cage to capture it. They finished the cage and left it there. Days passed and all this while, the wise rabbit kept still. It continued to ravage the crops but never once did it fall to the trap. Helpless, the farmers gave up and decided to look for a wise man. The wise man decided he was literally going to build a cage to capture the rabbit. The farmers looked at one another and told him that they tried it, and it wouldn't work. The wise man however knew what he was doing and stood his ground. He told the farmers to look and wait. The first day, he took a piece of wood and he drilled it to the ground. Beside the wood, he placed the carrots and greens lavishly. The wise rabbit was watching unknown to the farmers. He waited, days, and saw no activity. Tempted by greed and knowing that it was safe, he finally went forward to get the bite. Once the rabbit got out to the greens, the wise man prepared and the next day, he went forward to nail the second totem and the third each day, and soon, the cage was built. The rabbit all this while was led to believe that the wood pieces were just harmless. The day the cage was activated, the rabbit thinking that the cage was harmless, went in to get the greens, and just as the wise man expected, he was caught.