The Story of the Chinese Bamboo
The Chinese plant the seed: they water and fertilize it, but the first
year nothing happens. The second year
they water and fertilize it, and still nothing happens. The third and fourth years they water and
fertilize it, with no apparent results, and sometime during the course of the
fifth year, in a period of six weeks, the Chinese Bamboo Tree grows roughly
ninety feet.
The question is, did it grow ninety feet in six weeks or
did it grow ninety feet in five years?
The obvious answer is that it grew ninety feet in five years because,
had they not had the perseverance to keep caring for the crop day in and day
out each year, even though they were not seeing immediate results, there would
be no Chinese Bamboo Tree. All of us
have had those “Chinese Bamboo Tree” experiences. We might have had a difficult assignment in
math, social studies or science. We had
to work at it again and again without coming up with the correct answer. Once we did finally get the answer it seemed
simple and obvious. We came up with the
answer not because of our intellectual brilliance, but because of our
perseverance.
It is important to understand that things in life are
sometimes going to become hard, but if we continue to persevere, keep working,
and do not give up we can achieve any goal we set.
