Beyond Business: Life Is Like A Cup Of Coffee!
Posted by
eli
on 9/01/09• Categorized as Business Advice
image from travel.webshots.com/photo
Browsing through the web, I’ve found this wonderful story, by an unknown author, about the parable of a cup of coffee as it applies to life, money, job, careers, and living in general. The story teaches a lot of lessons on everyday living, and is worth sharing. Here it is:
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor.
Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite, telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
When all of his former students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:
“If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.
“Be assured that the cup itself adds no quantity to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.
“What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups. . . And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.
“Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.
” Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee.
“Savor the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.
“Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.”
In the final analysis, that what’s life is all about.
“Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.”
Bullshit. The jobs, money and position ARE part of life, maybe not all of it, but for most of us a big one.
I’ll take the damned good job, money and a good position thank-you.
@ Chinaren, Thanks for offering another perspective and interpretation of life, as it should be lived. My post is now enhanced because of your wise comment.
thank you so much eli for the kind words that you left for me, i truly appreciate them. i know that everything will turn out just fine, guess i was just overly excited to see my kids again and feel my first grandbaby kicking away inside my daughter’s tummy.
have a wonderful day my friend!