Be The Best Of Whatever You Are
It is increasingly clear that India will get back to work in the next 2-4 weeks. However, it won’t be business as usual. Some will get back to work earlier than others. Many of us will be out looking for jobs as the companies we worked for will try to rebuild themselves without us. The road to recovery will be long and hard, but each of us will have an important role to play as we help rebuild the economy.
The biggest lesson we’ve learned from this lockdown is that we are more resilient and self-sufficient than we give ourselves credit for. Another big lesson we’ve all learned is that when we are faced with impossible odds, the best response is to act – don’t stop to dwell on spilled milk.
There is a beautiful Douglas Malloch poem that I read in How to Stop Worrying and Start Living written by Dale Carnegie that captures the essence of that I would like to convey to those that are getting ready to get back to work or to look for a job:
If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill,
Be a scrub in the valley — but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill;
Be a bush if you can’t be a tree.
If you can’t be a bush be a bit of the grass,
And some highway happier make;
If you can’t be a muskie then just be a bass —
But the liveliest bass in the lake!
We can’t all be captains, we’ve got to be crew,
There’s something for all of us here,
There’s big work to do, and there’s lesser to do,
And the task you must do is the near.
If you can’t be a highway then just be a trail,
If you can’t be the sun be a star;
It isn’t by size that you win or you fail —
Be the best of whatever you are!
