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This is an intriguing quote said by Desiderius Erasmus. Desiderius Erasmus was a Dutch Humanist who studies the theology of Christ and inspires the Reformation through the new theological system. Although he promotes the reformers, his critics were rejected by Pope, married a Protestant Reformer and he held his commitment to the Catholic notion of free will.
The man with gold makes the rules.
This quote, “In the Country of the Blind, the One-eye Man is King. My interpretation of this quote is, a man who has one or more skills than other is considered superior or has an unfair advantage competitive. This doesn’t restrict to one perspective. This quote also reflects the Monarchy thinking. This can be interpreted in words of Charles Darwin’s “The Survival of Fittest”. For this quote has left me an impression of have and have-not.
Power Corrupts
Have-not and have is an entity of two different groups of people with certain character. The people who are labeled as have are the one that power. They have the advantage of financial, education, and, ownership. For the have-not is the opposite of have. The have-not is powerless and often experienced the frustration of hitting the glass-ceiling. Easy put, the have-not may perceived the have who carrying the wish lamp so that they can rub to conjure the Genie. Then the Genie will open by saying, “Your wish is my command.” This is where the have-not often asks, “How do they do that?” “What do they have that I don’t have?” “Why me, not them?”
I have my affinity for the have-not. I am going to take the have-not’s side which will be the blinds’ court. I am going to reveal how the have-not can beat the have. It is the time for the blinds to peg the stake in One-eye King’s courtyard.
Laying the Foundation
1. Discover your Core Identity
The people who don’t know who they are often are with their abilities and aspirations. When you are vague, you will start to live your life from day to day with mediocrity. Mediocrity is enemy of assertive and passion. Mediocre people are the one that is lazy, unmotivated, and a ‘useless ottoman’ in a society. They are easy to identify by their pessimistic attitude. You are useless because you have nothing to give back or any desire to make a difference. With mediocrity, it may leads to maybe depression or anger. You dwells on mediocre is just like you being stuck in quicksand. The more you dwells, the far you sink in the quicksand. To a realization you come, it is tough to climb out of quicksand. It takes strength to climb out of quicksand. There is no easy way out. With no effort, you keep on sinking and you will start dying.
With strength, you discover a purpose in your life. Thing are starting to look better because you come to a sense that you want to live a better life. You are getting tired of live in a bleak world. You want to be in the vibrant world. The purpose seeking in your life is your source of strength. It helps you climb out of the quicksand. The more you climb; the purpose seems to get bigger and defined.
Organizational consultant Warren Bennis has discovered through his research that top executives would advise the younger ones, in which three recommendations surfaced: first; take advantage of every opportunity; second, aggressively search for meaning; and third, know yourself. The core identity is emphasized on Bennis’s third recommendation, know yourself. Greek philosopher Socrates has said, “Know Thyself”. If we don’t know who we are? How do we help other to solve life’s problem and for ourselves to pursue the mysteries of life? When we know who we are we have clarity perspective in life and we understand our destiny.
To identify your Core identity is to take inventory of yourself.
Start with thing that you were born with. Let it be your ethnicity, your gender, and your age. Take look at yourself what it will always be you. Identify something that you can’t change such as your skin color. It is something that will always stay with you.
Then move on to your abilities and talents. What is your strength and weakness? What do you do better than others? What are your obstacles in terms of skill sets? When you identify what you can do and then you know where you stands. From there, you can decide if you need to improve or to add a new skill.
Discover your trends – What do you always read? What do you do for fun? What make you mad? Happy? This will help to identify your common interest.
It is important to set your own life principle. What are your moral values? What are your personal rules? When you set your own life guideline, you will be able to maneuver easily without being stuck in the middle. The experience will become stress-free.
Get this inventory in write and don’t ever stop finding who you are. The more you look into yourself and the more you know what you want to do with life. Be vigilance with the direction you are going in your life.
The core identity will become evident when you get out of your comfort zone. Embrace the challenges and you will learn more about yourself faster. You will never know the possibilities until you left the comfort zone. It is okay to fail as long you don’t repeat the mistake. When you fail, stop and reflect why? Then, you move forward. If you ever repeat your mistakes, it is an indicator that you haven’t really assessed your mistakes or you move your life carelessly. Fix yourself quick after that repeated mistakes before you hit the third strike. Getting out of comfort zone, you will appreciate life more because your horizon has become wider.
It is important that you find your core identity and then you can start to help others. You can help other because you have clear and defined knowledge of your needs, strength and weakness. You are backed by experiences and you are more emphatic in any situations you see and be able to relate. It will strengthen you and you will be able to stand against the haves and pull up the haves-not with you on the journey.
2. Continuing Education
With the core identity being identified and you now know why you are blind. Find the solution that will remove the obstacle of blindness. Figuratively, what is your blindness is your weakness.
For example:
Fred has a job that he stays for 5 years. He becomes tired of doing the same jobs and he know that he did a great job. Fred is angry for last 5 years the people who work below him is now his boss. Fred feels that he should be the boss because his current boss doesn’t do a good job.
Fred decides to be proactive about his situation and went to the personnel office to investigate why did he not get promoted. Fred decides to ask around his office to find why?
Fred came to sense; it was the amount of his formal education he received. Fred only have high school diploma. The people who got promoted have college degree.
Fred decides to work on his core identity to discover the strength and weakness, his interest and what put fire in his belly. He really wants to earn more money, have better vacation days, and to enjoy the better jobs. Fred identified his solution was that he need to go to college to earn a degree in order to receive the next promotion for the job Fred loves.
Fast forward…Fred got a degree and he finally got promoted. Fred is happy because he met his goal of earn more income, have a better vacation day and he really loves his job.
But Fred starts to notice that his colleagues always get the better projects while Fred didn’t get the ‘cream of crop’ projects. Fred decides to pay his boss a visit. He went into his boss office to discuss his work performance and Fred brings up on how he wants more works and more challenges because he believe he is capable. Fred’s boss points out he will be willing to give more works as long Fred show that he can handle the strenuous demand of work. Fred now has a better knowledge of what he needs to focus to win his boss’s attention.
He went back to his core identity to see which in area he need to improve his weakness. Fred realized that he needs to improve his knowledge in computer skills, delegation skills, and public speaking. Fred makes a plan to accomplish his goal. Fred find out that his workplace offer free classes on computer skills. Fred grabs this opportunity in a heartbeat. He decides to join the Toastmasters club to get the support from experienced speakers fine tuning Fred’s public speaking skills. For the delegation, Fred asked his subordinates for feedback and Fred buys few books delegation and attends to a seminar on management. He continues to work on his career goal and his skills.
Fred recognized that he becomes happier because he feels smarter and more all-around. His boss noticed that he is becoming a better worker. Fred landed the bigger project. Fred realized that his personal and professional development paid off because manage a bigger project was a breeze. Fred has got a bigger bonus pay for his excellence performance. In the end, boss sees Fred valuable and is considering promoting Fred.
A good lifelong learner doesn’t sit and wait for the education to come by. They go out and seek for it. They may stop by a library to borrow a book. They may go to their local college to participate in a lecture series. Or they hit two birds with a stone by visiting the elders in nursing home while heed on their wisdom. The lifelong learner doesn’t just only gain knowledge. They make sure that they give back what they learn by doing community service, help others, or discover a solution to daily problems. They understand that they must give in order to receive. Not only have they given to receive. They also prevent the history of doom repeat itself by educate and encourage the people to move forward with a better solution and knowledge.
Knowledge helps you open many doors. Keep on learning is just like sharpening your axe. Which will chop down the tree faster, sharp axe or dull axe? Of course, the sharp axe. In long run, which will cut more trees in short time? Yes, the sharp axe.
3. Understand the Rules
It is inevitable that the rules and laws are everywhere. Rules and Laws are there to keep our society in control. Understand them and play it to your advantage. The one who have better knowledge of rules and laws win the game. When you understand the rules and laws you know what it will take to satisfies some one with authorities in high place.
A while ago, I read a story of an American who decides to take up Thai kickboxing class because he wants to compete in the tournament. He was a beginner, so he works hard to acquire much skills as a professional Thai boxer have. But that American was no where near of that professional Thai boxer. It was time for him to compete in tournament. With all skills he gains and knowledge of Thai boxing. He put all of his best and the American won the Thai Boxing Champion. How did in the world an amateur win the champion against the professional?
That American boxer understood the Thai boxing rules. He followed the rules and uses it to his advantage. In Thai boxing, if a boxer gets out of the ring three times, the opponent wins automatically. That American boxer plowed and fighting every way he can get the professional Thai boxer out of the ring.
Understand the rules and play it to your advantage. Follow the rules is a good idea because you put yourself in a safe place because you are doing thing legally. There will be no guilty feeling and no stresses and worries because you are doing something wrong. Do yourself a favor, be an apple in eye of rule makers and they will reward you along your path.
The people who don’t know who they are often are with their abilities and aspirations. When you are vague, you will start to live your life from day to day with mediocrity. Mediocrity is enemy of assertive and passion. Mediocre people are the one that is lazy, unmotivated, and a ‘useless ottoman’ in a society. They are easy to identify by their pessimistic attitude. You are useless because you have nothing to give back or any desire to make a difference. With mediocrity, it may leads to maybe depression or anger. You dwells on mediocre is just like you being stuck in quicksand. The more you dwells, the far you sink in the quicksand. To a realization you come, it is tough to climb out of quicksand. It takes strength to climb out of quicksand. There is no easy way out. With no effort, you keep on sinking and you will start dying.
With strength, you discover a purpose in your life. Thing are starting to look better because you come to a sense that you want to live a better life. You are getting tired of live in a bleak world. You want to be in the vibrant world. The purpose seeking in your life is your source of strength. It helps you climb out of the quicksand. The more you climb; the purpose seems to get bigger and defined.
Organizational consultant Warren Bennis has discovered through his research that top executives would advise the younger ones, in which three recommendations surfaced: first; take advantage of every opportunity; second, aggressively search for meaning; and third, know yourself. The core identity is emphasized on Bennis’s third recommendation, know yourself. Greek philosopher Socrates has said, “Know Thyself”. If we don’t know who we are? How do we help other to solve life’s problem and for ourselves to pursue the mysteries of life? When we know who we are we have clarity perspective in life and we understand our destiny.
To identify your Core identity is to take inventory of yourself.
Start with thing that you were born with. Let it be your ethnicity, your gender, and your age. Take look at yourself what it will always be you. Identify something that you can’t change such as your skin color. It is something that will always stay with you.
Then move on to your abilities and talents. What is your strength and weakness? What do you do better than others? What are your obstacles in terms of skill sets? When you identify what you can do and then you know where you stands. From there, you can decide if you need to improve or to add a new skill.
Discover your trends – What do you always read? What do you do for fun? What make you mad? Happy? This will help to identify your common interest.
It is important to set your own life principle. What are your moral values? What are your personal rules? When you set your own life guideline, you will be able to maneuver easily without being stuck in the middle. The experience will become stress-free.
Get this inventory in write and don’t ever stop finding who you are. The more you look into yourself and the more you know what you want to do with life. Be vigilance with the direction you are going in your life.
The core identity will become evident when you get out of your comfort zone. Embrace the challenges and you will learn more about yourself faster. You will never know the possibilities until you left the comfort zone. It is okay to fail as long you don’t repeat the mistake. When you fail, stop and reflect why? Then, you move forward. If you ever repeat your mistakes, it is an indicator that you haven’t really assessed your mistakes or you move your life carelessly. Fix yourself quick after that repeated mistakes before you hit the third strike. Getting out of comfort zone, you will appreciate life more because your horizon has become wider.
It is important that you find your core identity and then you can start to help others. You can help other because you have clear and defined knowledge of your needs, strength and weakness. You are backed by experiences and you are more emphatic in any situations you see and be able to relate. It will strengthen you and you will be able to stand against the haves and pull up the haves-not with you on the journey.
2. Continuing Education
With the core identity being identified and you now know why you are blind. Find the solution that will remove the obstacle of blindness. Figuratively, what is your blindness is your weakness.
For example:
Fred has a job that he stays for 5 years. He becomes tired of doing the same jobs and he know that he did a great job. Fred is angry for last 5 years the people who work below him is now his boss. Fred feels that he should be the boss because his current boss doesn’t do a good job.
Fred decides to be proactive about his situation and went to the personnel office to investigate why did he not get promoted. Fred decides to ask around his office to find why?
Fred came to sense; it was the amount of his formal education he received. Fred only have high school diploma. The people who got promoted have college degree.
Fred decides to work on his core identity to discover the strength and weakness, his interest and what put fire in his belly. He really wants to earn more money, have better vacation days, and to enjoy the better jobs. Fred identified his solution was that he need to go to college to earn a degree in order to receive the next promotion for the job Fred loves.
Fast forward…Fred got a degree and he finally got promoted. Fred is happy because he met his goal of earn more income, have a better vacation day and he really loves his job.
But Fred starts to notice that his colleagues always get the better projects while Fred didn’t get the ‘cream of crop’ projects. Fred decides to pay his boss a visit. He went into his boss office to discuss his work performance and Fred brings up on how he wants more works and more challenges because he believe he is capable. Fred’s boss points out he will be willing to give more works as long Fred show that he can handle the strenuous demand of work. Fred now has a better knowledge of what he needs to focus to win his boss’s attention.
He went back to his core identity to see which in area he need to improve his weakness. Fred realized that he needs to improve his knowledge in computer skills, delegation skills, and public speaking. Fred makes a plan to accomplish his goal. Fred find out that his workplace offer free classes on computer skills. Fred grabs this opportunity in a heartbeat. He decides to join the Toastmasters club to get the support from experienced speakers fine tuning Fred’s public speaking skills. For the delegation, Fred asked his subordinates for feedback and Fred buys few books delegation and attends to a seminar on management. He continues to work on his career goal and his skills.
Fred recognized that he becomes happier because he feels smarter and more all-around. His boss noticed that he is becoming a better worker. Fred landed the bigger project. Fred realized that his personal and professional development paid off because manage a bigger project was a breeze. Fred has got a bigger bonus pay for his excellence performance. In the end, boss sees Fred valuable and is considering promoting Fred.
A good lifelong learner doesn’t sit and wait for the education to come by. They go out and seek for it. They may stop by a library to borrow a book. They may go to their local college to participate in a lecture series. Or they hit two birds with a stone by visiting the elders in nursing home while heed on their wisdom. The lifelong learner doesn’t just only gain knowledge. They make sure that they give back what they learn by doing community service, help others, or discover a solution to daily problems. They understand that they must give in order to receive. Not only have they given to receive. They also prevent the history of doom repeat itself by educate and encourage the people to move forward with a better solution and knowledge.
Knowledge helps you open many doors. Keep on learning is just like sharpening your axe. Which will chop down the tree faster, sharp axe or dull axe? Of course, the sharp axe. In long run, which will cut more trees in short time? Yes, the sharp axe.
3. Understand the Rules
It is inevitable that the rules and laws are everywhere. Rules and Laws are there to keep our society in control. Understand them and play it to your advantage. The one who have better knowledge of rules and laws win the game. When you understand the rules and laws you know what it will take to satisfies some one with authorities in high place.
A while ago, I read a story of an American who decides to take up Thai kickboxing class because he wants to compete in the tournament. He was a beginner, so he works hard to acquire much skills as a professional Thai boxer have. But that American was no where near of that professional Thai boxer. It was time for him to compete in tournament. With all skills he gains and knowledge of Thai boxing. He put all of his best and the American won the Thai Boxing Champion. How did in the world an amateur win the champion against the professional?
That American boxer understood the Thai boxing rules. He followed the rules and uses it to his advantage. In Thai boxing, if a boxer gets out of the ring three times, the opponent wins automatically. That American boxer plowed and fighting every way he can get the professional Thai boxer out of the ring.
Understand the rules and play it to your advantage. Follow the rules is a good idea because you put yourself in a safe place because you are doing thing legally. There will be no guilty feeling and no stresses and worries because you are doing something wrong. Do yourself a favor, be an apple in eye of rule makers and they will reward you along your path.
One-eye King Dethroned!
Those are the three basic skills, core identity, continuing education, and understands the rules and laws are the vitals the have-not need to master. Without this framework, it will be like you are shooting the gun with no bullets in it. When you have the foundation laid down and then you can start building a bigger castle than the one-eye king.
Blind see more than what seeing people see, Deaf hears more than what hearing people hear.
I took a rock climbing class in college. In the rock gym, there was an exercise that the students to perform. The exercise was that we climb with a blindfold on.
“What!” “Being 50 feet off the ground blindly with rope in just one knot holding us?” “This is crazy!”
Climb with blindfold has changed my perspective. Being blind open our mind. We learn that we depend on our eye so much. Being blind, we taught ourselves to use our other senses. Our hands become our eye. We climb kinetically. With blindfold on, we climb better because we forced to use our skills that we underutilized.
When we get the opportunity to climb with blindfold, I do this in a heartbeat. It is more fun and I really do enjoy the climbing because you are more focused and in tune with the nature. Yes, I do climb better blindly.
Our blindness is not the problem. It is our knowledge and skills. Lacks of knowledge and skills is what it make us blind. Keep on forging ourselves better and we will become better than that one-eye king who is so fixated on his ability to see with his one-eye. We can develop multitude of skills that will compensate our weakness of being blind.
Explore and learn! You may realize that you have many and many skills that one-eye king don’t have to win.
Blind see more than what seeing people see, Deaf hears more than what hearing people hear.
I took a rock climbing class in college. In the rock gym, there was an exercise that the students to perform. The exercise was that we climb with a blindfold on.
“What!” “Being 50 feet off the ground blindly with rope in just one knot holding us?” “This is crazy!”
Climb with blindfold has changed my perspective. Being blind open our mind. We learn that we depend on our eye so much. Being blind, we taught ourselves to use our other senses. Our hands become our eye. We climb kinetically. With blindfold on, we climb better because we forced to use our skills that we underutilized.
When we get the opportunity to climb with blindfold, I do this in a heartbeat. It is more fun and I really do enjoy the climbing because you are more focused and in tune with the nature. Yes, I do climb better blindly.
Our blindness is not the problem. It is our knowledge and skills. Lacks of knowledge and skills is what it make us blind. Keep on forging ourselves better and we will become better than that one-eye king who is so fixated on his ability to see with his one-eye. We can develop multitude of skills that will compensate our weakness of being blind.
Explore and learn! You may realize that you have many and many skills that one-eye king don’t have to win.
