04/11/04

Today, I finished my Accounting paper. It is my favourite subject, and I have always felt good doing accounting paper. But, today i made a mistake, a terrible one. This terrible mistake might just make me far away from my expectations. Its really a grave one. If not for the short phrase I missed out, I would have finish that question happily. That question..... that phrase..... I will never forget it. It might just cause me to drop 2 grades from what I wanted. It might just scar my report card again.

As you see from the word "again" in the last paragraph, it is not the first time I miss out the details in a question. I remember when I did my Organizational Behavior last year, I missed out a whole diagram for a question. That diagram was placed at the end of the paper and i totally missed the phrase in question 2," referring to the diagram". That was one that caused a scar in my report card that time. I hope this time, I could still hang on to what I wanted, from the help of my course work grades.

I couldn't stress enough how sad and angry I am with myself. This is really the dumbest mistake I can make. When I was on the bus home just now, heaven seems to weep for me. Is it a sign for something? I guess I'll need a few days to get over this mistake. I couldn't forgive myself. (The phrase I missed out is," due to shortage of labor)

Heres the Slice of Life

"Success doesn't take orders from Lady Luck.

Achievers didn't obtain their success by waiting for it to fall from the sky. A top housing agent's track record may look impressive, but do you know how many failed transactions he or she had to crawl over just to get to one sale? Success is easily seen and recognized, but how many people know the struggles that went into it?

Similarly, one doesn't get a good interview simply by calling one or two potential interviewees once or twice. As one acclaimed journalist once shared, she didn't get exclusives by just making a few phone calls. Very often, she called and called and called before they were finally willing to speak to her.

So if you're feeling a little defeated, and think that you're a victim of Life's cruel humour, let me share with you The Law of the Seed.

Each apple tree can bear up to five hundred fruits. Each fruit may contain up to ten seeds. Well, Mathematics isn't my forte, but even I can tell you the total number of seeds can be about 5,000 per apple tree.

Why would an apple tree need to produce so many seeds?

Well, most seeds never grow. They might get washed away, they might end up on barren ground, or they might get burnt up in an incinerator. The odds are against an apple seed. So, if apple trees are to ensure their survival, they had better produce more than just a few seeds.

Likewise, if you really want to make something happen, you had better try more than once, more than a few times.

This "law" of the seed also tells us that:

You'll attend twenty interviews to get one job.You'll interview forty people to find one good employee… so treasure your good workers.

You'll talk to fifty people to sell one house, one car, one vacuum cleaner, one insurance policy, one idea.

You might meet a hundred acquaintances to find one special friend.And you might have to go through several heartbreaks before finding that person who will share the rest of your life with you.

If we understand this "law", we'll stop feeling so disappointed with ourselves. We'll stop feeling like victims.

Successful people don't just routinely sit back and then reap bountiful harvests. They just plant more seeds."

Remember today's mistake I will. An Idiot I am. I'll not forgive myself if I didn't meet my expectation. Never.