The Wisdom Of The Old Man And The Horse

There is a parable found around the world in almost every country about an old man who owns a valuable horse. The origin of the story has been widely debated. In the parable, the local people tell the old man to sell the horse, but he refuses because he considers the steed a friend.

One day the horse comes up missing. The locals are quick to tell the old man how unlucky he is; but he simply tells them to not judge the situation for good or bad, but only to acknowledge the horse is gone.

A week later the horse returns with a second horse. The people then tell the old man he is very lucky. He tells them again to not judge whether it is good or bad, but only to know the horse is back, and a second came with it.

A few days later the old man’s son breaks his wrist riding the horse. Once again the people tell the man it was unfortunate the horse returned, for now his son is hurt and can’t help around the farm. The old man simply acknowledged his son’s arm was broken and said it was beyond his wisdom to know if the situation was good or bad.

Within a week a war broke out and all the able-bodied young men were drafted into the army. The people mourned as their sons were taken away. Then they gathered around the old man’s home and told him he was lucky his son broke his arm and therefore wasn’t drafted.

In great frustration the old man said, “Say only your sons were drafted and mine was not. Whether this is good or bad, who can say?” The people grumbled and then left, and the old man never spoke to them again.

The lesson is clear, it seems we are more comfortable with labeling situations in our lives and in the world around us. We tend to look past the facts and try to decide if something is good or bad. The problem is that often we are wrong and make decisions based upon incomplete information.

For instance, not long ago a young swimmer broke his wrist just weeks before a very important meet. His training had to be altered, which meant he spent a lot of time treading water by kicking his legs, unable to use his arm for strokes while his wrist healed.

The day of the big meet came, and as this young swimmer was in the final lap of the race, his leg training helped him win the last leg of the competition by 1/100th of a second. In the end, his broken wrist helped Michael Phelps win his eighth gold medal. What many people would have labeled a bad thing proved to be beneficial after all.

Lou Holtz shared, “Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.” Nothing has any meaning accept the meaning we give it.

For instance, Steven K. Scott was fired from nine jobs, with one boss telling him he was never more disappointed in an employee in his life. To prove his naysayer wrong, Scott searched for his passion until he found it in marketing where he became an enormous success, making millions.

So be careful how you label events and circumstances in your life. What someone might at first call a bad thing may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to you.