The second in my series of five simple lessons is all about success. To achieve real success you have to be prepared to do something others will not. If you don’t you will simply be the same as everyone else. Do you have what it takes?

LESSON TWO – The Obstacle in our path

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a boulder on roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.

The peasant learned what many of us never understand!

Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

You’ll know by now that the first M in the 6M is mindset and I’ve been talking about a number of related issues over the past few weeks, being positive; being open to ideas; accepting of change; expecting good to happen; information arriving when it’s needed.

Over the last few days I’ve been experiencing real flow – information I need arriving when it’s required. Today I was going to post about treating people fairly and the results you can expect, you know – you smile – they smile; you scowl – they scowl. I like to give examples wherever possible and as I opened my emails this morning I found one addressed to Wizzer (my other name) that is just so relevant that I decided to post it here. It’s quite long so I’ve broken it down into 5 separate lessons.

LESSON ONE – Remember those who serve

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

“How much is an ice cream sundae?” he asked.

“Fifty cents,” replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled is hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

“Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?” he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient.

“Thirty-five cents,” she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins.

“I’ll have the plain ice cream,” he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies..

You see, he couldn’t have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

More will definitely be just around the corner for this small child since giving results in receiving. A great lesson to us all.